History Main / FeetOfClay

** Shadow Weaver is a knowledgeable sorceress and a competent administrator. However, [[spoiler:due to the effects of the Spell of Obtainment, she has no innate power and must draw magical power from a runestone, ground Mystacore crystal, or a magically endowed person. She also seeks influence not through her own achievements, but by manipulating children and teenagers.]]
** Hordak created the Etherian Horde from the ground up, is a powerhouse on the battlefield when equipped with his arm cannon and cybernetic exoskeleton, and has a brilliant mind for logistics, science, and engineering. However, [[spoiler:his public persona — an intimidating, dominant warlord who appears muscular — is a fabrication hiding a sickly and insecure man underneath. What makes him truly pathetic is that his identity and self-worth are completely bound up in Horde Prime, a tyrant who does not deserve his loyalty and does not appreciate his efforts. He has gambled all of his self-respect on earning Horde Prime's approval, like a child seeking his father's affirmation. He expects Horde Prime to conquer Etheria and punish his enemies, despite knowing exactly what kind of man his progenitor is.]]
** Catra is driven, adaptable, impressive in hand-to-hand combat, and has a brilliant tactical mind. However, like Hordak, [[spoiler:she's driven by an unhealthy need for validation. Despite getting everything she thought she wanted in season 4, she's miserable and mentally unstable. She taints all of her personal and professional relationships with jealousy, manipulation, deception, and cruelty, driving everyone away until she is truly alone in the world at the end of season 4.]]
** Hordak's Overlord, who presents himself as the pinnacle of his (and Hordak's) species, is the very definition of a Fundamentalist Megalomaniac. Half the time he's too busy going through ludicrous rituals meant to glorify his existence as a divine Ubermensch - even when he ends up creeping out every other villain in the series. In the finale, he has a VillainousBreakdown from being shown that there's a ''chance'' he isn't the perfect, all-omnipotent god he constantly claims to be, and squanders his ambitions for universal domination because he can't take the idea that anything is capable of defying him.

* ''Anime/SaintSeiyaTheLostCanvas'' features this during El Cid's Flashback. It involves a young trainee that was a single day from being awarded a high-ranking cloth and officially becoming a Saint Of Athena. His friends congratulate him but during the night, El Cid sees him running away from the sanctuary. Upon being confronted, the man breaks down and starts to cry before explaining that he didn't want to die. El Cid responds by saying that running away from the sanctuary is punishable by death and promptly raises his sword to deliver a death blow. He's halted by Sisyphus, who comforts the man and says that there are other ways he can help.

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder:Comics]]

See also TheSoCalledCoward, InformedAbility, MilesGloriosus. Contrast ShroudedInMyth. When the character turns out to be just as competent as he is supposed to be, but is also a complete and total {{Jerkass}} and not all that heroic at all, it's WartsAndAll. The inversion of this trope usually falls under ObfuscatingStupidity, as a character believed to be an utter incompetent is really hiding his competency.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRedAndTheBlue'' Two blocks of shapeless clay. The Red is big and passionate, he likes driving fast cars, eating, singing the opera, enjoying all pleasures of life. The Blue is small, smart and cunning and he's there just to bother the Red.
** Living together on the same stage, thanks to the endless morphing possibilities of clay animation, these two antithetical characters create irresistible gags based on everyday life in a unique, artistic abstract style.

This is when a character who is generally held to be incredibly talented is revealed in the end to be totally incompetent. If the incompetent character is on the side of the heroes, this forces the heroes to save the "savior", who is usually an obnoxious example of TheRival, or a [[FakeUltimateHero phony example]] of AlwaysSomeoneBetter. Straight-laced heroes usually have to swallow their {{pride}} to help this jerk. The NaiveNewcomer may be shocked to find he's [[WartsAndAll not the nice guy everyone thinks he is]]. [[GreenEyedMonster Other heroes]] will squeeze every benefit they can out of it. If the character is an idol in the eyes of the protagonist(s), BrokenPedestal often follows. If the character with the Feet of Clay is a villain, [[TheWorfEffect at first]] he will appear to be all-powerful and frightening, but will turn out to be [[VillainExitStageLeft a coward]], a weakling [[TheManBehindTheCurtain hiding behind]] illusions, a HarmlessVillain, or TooDumbToLive. This can be subverted if they attempt, and succeed, to BecomingTheBoast.

* The characters in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' make a big fuss about how incredibly tough Meryl is - an eighteen-year-old female soldier with a [[HandCannon Desert Eagle]]. However, she trembles when told to shoot, forgets to take the safety off her gun, gets {{Mind Control}}led by a [[PsychicPowers psychic]] into shooting Snake and attempting a suicide, takes point in the most useless way possible for the gamer and for Snake, gets shot by a sniper, and spends the rest of the game getting tortured and arguably raped off-camera, to make a return, unconscious, at the end. Depending on the [[MultipleEndings ending]], she may or may not live to crash her car and pin her and Snake under it. But unlike, say, the FauxActionGirl, we learn that it wasn't that she was inherently useless so much as very young and inexperienced - she becomes aware of this over the course of the game and her façade of arrogance is dropped.
** Fortunately, when she returns in ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', she's [[TookALevelInBadass taken several dozen levels in badass]].

* ''Literature/TheTamuli'': The king of the Cyrgai ProudWarriorRace is supposed to be [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking the mightiest of them all]]. As it turns out, spending his whole life in a hidden city fighting nobody but loyal subjects who knew they'd be executed if they hurt him does not a mighty warrior make.

* ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'': The Miracle Man/Joshua Ayers in his first appearance, "Fantastic Four" vol. 1 #3 (March, 1962). A villainous stage magician who was supposedly tougher than the Thing, could bring statues to life, terrorized New York City, defeated the United States Army and stole tanks from them, and repeatedly bested and humiliated the Fantastic Four. Once temporarily blinded by the Human Torch's flames, he was rendered powerless. It turned out that he was just a MasterOfIllusion, who could mesmerize entire crowds through eye contact. He was never a physical threat to begin with. Later writers have given Miracle Man genuine magical powers and tried various temporary power-upgrades to make him a more credible threat. It has not really worked and his reputation is that of a second-rate [[Characters/XMenBrotherhoodOfMutants Mastermind]].

* On ''Series/MadTV'', one of the recurring characters is an example of this: an easily provoked jerk jock, who is highly possessive of his girlfriend. Gets in a fight with at least one person in every appearance. The opponent is usually scared to fight the guy until they realize his fighting style consists entirely of flailing his arms impotently and falling against his opponent.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Gilderoy Lockhart manages to coast along fairly well as a legendary HunterOfMonsters despite his obvious lack of monster-hunting competence thanks to his own extensive hype machine [[spoiler:and accomplishments stolen from the people that actually did them, who he magicked into forgetting]] -- at least until he runs into Harry.

* Fascinatingly, the ''book'' of ''Literature/{{Wicked}}'' is the only iteration of the story in which he has actual power. He appears to be some kind of magical criminal fleeing his home dimension, and Dorothy, who comes from the same place, is his inadvertent nemesis. ([[spoiler:Elphaba is his daughter.]])

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/{{The Alamo|2004}}'', Davey Crockett expresses the sentiment that he, himself, is an example of this trope, being propped up by public opinion and overblown stories about his so-called exploits. He's not, but it makes for a poignant moment.
* Captain Amazing in ''Film/MysteryMen''. The titular heroes aren't too good with the helping, though.

[[folder:Film]]

* In the 2018 reboot of ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'', all three of the major Horde villains are pathetic in some way, their considerable talents notwithstanding.

* [[spoiler: Eddy's brother]] on ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' is actually both types at once. [[spoiler: The whole series plays him up as TheAce, someone who Eddy looks up to and admires. When we finally see him in TheMovie, he is quickly revealed to be a jerk whose constant abuse toward Eddy was the reason for him pretending to be a jerk. Then type two comes into effect when Ed defeats him by removing a hinge on his trailer door, causing it to hit him in the face. WordOfGod says this is because he never received pain in his life, so the door hurt him more than it would anyone used to pain]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' has dozens of villains who are less dangerous than they seem. The Mummy's only ability was fast-talking people into thinking that he could put a mummy's curse on them. The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past From The Future does nothing but bore people to sleep with endless stories and summon smoke for dramatic effect. The Plutonians kidnapped Master Shake and replaced him with an evil clone -- but because they didn't know how to work the machine, the clone didn't look like Master Shake and wasn't evil but less of a Jerkass then Shake himself. (Meanwhile, back on their ship, the Plutonians were trying to convince Master Shake to [[TooSpicyForYogSothoth please step into the path]] of their disintegration beam.) The Moonites constantly talk of taking over the world, but their gun fires a projectile that moves so slowly, it's sometimes questionable if it moves at all.

This is when a character who is generally held to be incredibly talented is revealed in the end to be totally incompetent. If the incompetent character is on the side of the heroes, this forces the heroes to save the "savior", who is usually an obnoxious example of The Rival, or a [[FakeUltimateHero phony example]] of AlwaysSomeoneBetter. Straight-laced heroes usually have to swallow their {{pride}} to help this jerk. The NaiveNewcomer may be shocked to find he's [[WartsAndAll not the nice guy everyone thinks he is]]. [[GreenEyedMonster Other heroes]] will squeeze every benefit they can out of it. If the character is an idol in the eyes of the protagonist(s), BrokenPedestal often follows. If the character with the Feet of Clay is a villain, [[TheWorfEffect at first]] he will appear to be all-powerful and frightening, but will turn out to be [[VillainExitStageLeft a coward]], a weakling [[TheManBehindTheCurtain hiding behind]] illusions, a HarmlessVillain, or TooDumbToLive. This can be subverted if they attempt, and succeed, to BecomingTheBoast.

* Partial example in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney''. The elderly witness Oldbag has vital information that she's not willing to give up and when you approach her and ask about it, the second largest arrangement of Psyche-locks so far appears, which in-game looks like you'll need four pieces of evidence to get her to break. However, giving her an autograph from someone she likes makes her break 3 out of 4 of the locks instantly, and the 4th one is broken (with no further effort on your part) solely because she's a gossiper and ''wants'' to tell you.

* In ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'', the chapter where Asura and Yasha finally defeat Deus is titled this, for this precise reason. Deus always believed he was the only one who could defeat Vlitra Gohma, and that his extremist methods were the only way to stop the monster. Asura and Yasha crush him and reveal that his methods were doomed to failure and that he was never the all-powerful god he thought he was.

* Practically every ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' villain ever.
** Except those werecat ladies with the zombies in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooOnZombieIsland''. Just for a change of pace. Oh, and the sentient computer virus.
** The soul-stealing demons in the live-action movie, too.
** A commonly-used plot point in the animated Scooby-Doo movies is the monster being just another person in a costume, followed by the real monster showing up. So really, every ''Scooby-Doo'' movie is like this.

* ''Literature/TheTamuli'': The king of the Cyrgai ProudWarriorRace is supposed to be [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking the mightiest of them all]]. As it turns out, spending your whole life in a hidden city fighting nobody but loyal subjects who knew they'd be executed if they hurt him does not a mighty warrior make.

* Lockhart from the aforementioned ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series quoted at the top of the page manages to coast along fairly well on his own hype [[spoiler: and stories stolen from the people that actually did them, who he magicked into forgetting]] and nothing else -- at least until he runs into Harry.

** Also, the gate guardian. Inside the big metal behemoth is a weak goblin that Hoggle easily throws out of the pilot seat.

* ''Anime/SaintSeiyaTheLostCanvas'' Features this during El Cid's Flashback. It involves a young trainee that was a single day from being awarded a high-ranking cloth and officially becoming a Saint Of Athena. His friends congratulate him but during the night, El Cid sees him running away from the sanctuary. Upon being confronted, the man breaks down and starts to cry before explaining that he didn't want to die. El Cid responds by saying that running away from the sanctuary is punishable by death and promptly raises his sword to deliver a death blow. He's halted by Sisyphus, who comforts the man and says that there are other ways he can help.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* A ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' series had Charlie Brown upset as his baseball hero, Joe Schlabotnik, got demoted to the minor leagues:
-->'''Linus:''' Your hero had feet of clay, huh?\\
'''Charlie Brown:''' No, he had a really low batting average.

* A ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' series had Charlie Brown upset as his baseball hero, Joe Schlabotnik, demoted to the minor leagues:

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' Part Three, all the heroes initially see of [=ZZ=], the wielder of the "Wheel of Fortune" Stand, is his huge muscular arms, in between trying to avoid getting killed by the wielder's [[CarFu giant muscle car]]. Turns out he's completely scrawny everywhere else with a potbelly, can't fight back once pulled from his vehicle and is reduced to begging for his life, and the car itself is a rusty old junk heap when not being powered by a Stand.

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' part three, all the heroes initially see of the wielder of the "Wheel of Fortune" stand is his muscular arms. Turns out he's completely scrawny everywhere else.
* ''Manga/Overlord2012'': [[VillainProtagonist Ainz Ooal Gown]] is a lich of horrifying power, casting spells the likes of which TheArchmage has never seen, and of such formidable intellect that everything he, his minions, or his enemies do ends up playing right into his hands... or so the residents of Nazarick and the new world would have you believe. In fact, while Ainz' player did roleplay an evil lich, he isn't particularly evil (chuuni phase nonwithstanding) and certainly not coldly calculating, has no idea how or why his powers are so high (in-game, insta-death spells were more for flavor and dealing with trash mobs, in the new world they have no such limitations) and the only thing that has prevented him from breaking down and confessing his ineptitude is the fact that the Nazarickites view him as an infallible god/father figure and his new skeletal body comes with an EmotionSuppression mechanic (a great deal of humor comes from his internal screaming whenever he thinks he's gotten out of showing off his supposed intellect, only for Demiurge to step in and praise Ainz' planning further). He's also very bad at understanding the effect he causes on people, not seeing how casually turning a corpse into an undead servant in front of people ''might'' make them think you don't have their best interests at heart.

* Lockhart from the aforementioned ''Harry Potter'' series manages to coast along fairly well on his own hype [[spoiler: and stories stolen from the people that actually did them, who he magicked into forgetting]] and nothing else -- at least until he runs into Harry.

* Partial example in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney''. Oldbag has vital information that she's not willing to give up and when you approach her the second largest Psyche-lock so far appears, looking like you'll need four pieces of evidence to get her to break. However, giving her an autograph makes her break 3 out of 4 of the locks instantly, and the 4th one is broken (with no further effort) solely because she's a gossiper and ''wants'' to tell you.
* The K'Tang in ''VideoGame/StarControl3''. They appear as gigantic creatures in heavy PoweredArmor, flying powerful ships, threatening everything they encounter, and proudly proclaiming their dominance of the Crux Hegemony - a powerful consortium of several space-faring species. In truth, they are tiny, puny creatures who are barely capable of surviving without their suits, and in fact they are not even the masters of the Hegemony, being no more than puppets in the hands of another member-species, the Ploxis.
* In ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'', the chapter where Asura and Yasha finally defeat Deus is titled this, for this precise reason. Deus always believed he was the only one who could defeat Vlitra Gohma, and that his extremist methods were the only way to stop the monster. Asura and Yasha crush him and reveal that his method was doomed to failure and that he was never the all-powerful god he thought he was.

** Except those werecat ladies with the zombies. Just for a change of pace. Oh, and the sentient computer virus.

** A commonly-used plot point in the animated Scooby-Doo movies is the monster being just another person in a costume, followed by the real monster showing up. So really, every Scooby-Doo movie is like this.
* [[spoiler: Eddy's brother]] on ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' is actually both types at once. [[spoiler: The whole series plays him up as TheAce, someone who Eddy looks up to an admires. When we finally see him in TheMovie, he is quickly revealed to be a jerk whose constant abuse toward Eddy was the reason for him pretending to be a jerk. Then type two comes into effect when Ed defeats him by removing a hinge on his trailer door, causing it to hit him in the face. WordOfGod says this is because he never received pain in his life, so the door hurt him more than it would anyone used to pain]].

* Played with by the North Wind in ''WesternAnimation/PenguinsOfMadagascar''. While they are a competent and heroic team, they're also rather egotistical and unsympathetic, causing much of the antagonism between them and the penguins. Cemented when [[spoiler:the North Wind abandon the penguins inside Dave's submarine to "regroup", even after Private saved them from a DeathTrap.]]