Hyper-Competent Sidekicks in Literature.
- In Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the slave girl Morgiana singlehandedly uncovers and thwarts every one of the thieves' plans to murder Ali Baba without alerting them to her involvement before he even suspects he's in danger.
- Atlas Shrugged: Jim Taggart is CEO of Taggart Transcontinental, but his sister Dagny actually does all the work.
- Ben and Me: Amos claims that Ben achieved most of his success because of Amos' assistance. For instance, Amos gave Franklin the idea for the stove and his skill as a spy let Ben know all sorts of things that made people unaware of the arrangement wonder if the man could read minds.
- It would be stretching to call the Princess Ren of A Brother's Price "incompetent", but she is inexperienced and still trying to adjust to being the leader and the Eldest Princess, even six years after her older sisters died in a theater explosion. She relies rather heavily on the experience and advice of Captain Raven Tern, and as the novel progresses the Captain is never pushed aside, but Ren comes to stand on her own more.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer': In Portal Through Time'', Victor is the toughest and cagiest assassin Lucien recruits, and once Lucien is captured by the Scooby Gang, Victor temporarily takes charge of the efforts to kill past Slayers.
- Ciaphas Cain: The title character's aide Gunner Jurgen possesses the incredibly rare talent of being able to nullify Warp powers within a certain area of effect. This (and his melta) often come in handy for saving Cain's posterior in situations that would probably have gotten him killed long ago otherwise. Moreover, he's an incredibly good driver, a crack shot, an expert bureaucrat and gofer, and quite cunning. The fact that he's a blank is part of the reason no one notices him. As the author has joked, if anyone actually noticed Jurgen, he'd probably be the famous one. (Though the idea would probably horrify him.)
- The Death of the Vazir Mukhtar: Burtsev and several other exiled Decembrist officers are this to supposed General Failure Paskevich. Each of them manages one of the crucial areas of warfare, and their efforts seem crucial to all of Paskevich's victories.
- Diamond Brothers: Nick's Too Dumb to Live older brother Tim (actually named Herbert Simple) believes that he's a world-famous and brilliant detective, while Nick actually does almost all of the real detective work. Nick is usually the one who actually solves the case at the end.
- Discworld:
- Captain Carrot is strong enough to punch out a troll, idealistic enough to make up for the combined weight of Ankh-Morpork's cynicism, and is charismatic (and quite possibly intelligent as well) enough to make sure said idealism doesn't get him killed/beaten. And he still takes orders from Sam Vimes. Who's admittedly a badass, but still, as one character in Jingo noted, "[Carrot] can make water run uphill, and he has a commander..." Pretty much everyone knows he's the heir to the throne, but he steadfastly denies it except on a very few occasions.
- #3 in the Watch hierarchy is Angua, a gorgeous werewolf with an amazing sense of smell, super strength, and the ability to regenerate from almost anything.
- Vimes' Battle Butler, Willikins, shows aspects of this trope as well. Not only is he Vimes's preferred backup when trouble breaks out away from Watch jurisdiction, but he's taken it upon himself to do whatever's needed to guard the Vimes family... up to and including eliminating villains whom Vimes' own conscience couldn't handle killing outright.
- In Monstrous Regiment, while Lt. Blouse was smart and competent in his own way, it was the veteran Sergeant Jackrum who's practical and kept the squad of newbies alive by various means. In fact, all officers (or "ruperts") were basically there to be manipulated by Jackrum — from his own lieutenant to the Borogravian High Command. The main character, being an Only Sane Man among the recruits, is praised by Jackrum to be great sergeant material. She's promoted to Sergeant by the end of the book. This was presumably a reference to this trope common to war works (and real life), where the veteran non-com is saddled with an officer fresh out of the academy.
- Igors serving "mad scientist" types are generally at least at good at science as their masters, while also having enough applied engineering knowledge and sanity to both put their insane schemes into action and judiciously leave town just before the mob breaks into the lab.
- Rufus Drumknott, personal secretary to Lord Vetinari and head of Ankh-Morpork's professional civil service, is so good at anticipating whatever his brilliant master will need for the current round of Xanatos Speed Chess that to outsiders it looks like some form of magic.
- Doctrine of Labyrinths:
- Although she becomes a POV character in The Mirador, Mehitabel first appears as this in The Virtu. Thanks to her geographic knowledge, quick thinking, and ability to go undercover as anybody, Mildmay and Felix actually manage to survive Kekropia and rescue the victims of a witch hunt to boot.
- New Amsterdam's Jack Priest belongs to two revolutionary movements, speaks multiple languages, flirts his way into confidential documents, can find anybody, and provides much-needed blood to his vampire employer, Sebastien de Uloa.
- Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry: Flandry's alien valet Chives is a direct Shout-Out to Jeeves, although Flandry himself is very smart and competent.
- In Miquel de Cervantes's Don Quixote Sancho Panza occupies this position by the sheer fact that he's not completely crazy. This trope is older than the Enlightenment.
- Dora Wilk Series: Teresa has been a seneschal (second-in-command) of another vampire for years before Gajusz picked her up. She's capable of translating his "do this, now!" into coherent orders, she's able to organize everything in the nest while he's only playing inter-nest politics, she's able to smooth his fits of rage into relative calmness, she's able to aid him even when he clearly doesn't want help... It's insinuated that Gajusz would fall long ago if not for her.
- The Efficient Baxter, Lord Emsworth's secretary, who was too hyper competent for most tastes.
- One story in The Escapist emphasized this aspect about Big Al, the Escapist's 8-foot-tall, philosophy-quoting sidekick. A bad guy points out how much tougher and smarter Big Al is, yet he plays second banana to the Escapist—to try to recruit Big Al to the evil organization. (The story was probably a self-conscious comment on comic-book tropes.)
- In Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Empire, Bel Riose apparently exemplifies this trait so thoroughly that his emperor, Cleon II, is later remembered merely as "Riose's Emperor". Much like the character's real-life inspiration, Belisarius, this results in his recall. Unlike Belisarius, however, Riose is executed for treason.
- Pular Singe from the Garrett, P.I. series started out as Garrett's insecure young apprentice, but has evolved into this as she's matured and begun trusting in her own talents.
- Milo in the Gaunt's Ghosts series leans towards this in the first few books. He's unfortunately so good at his job that he attracts the attention of the Inquisition, rightly thinking he's a previously un-identified pskyer. He later leaves Gaunt's side to become a full time soldier and even later he becomes a sidekick for the saint Sabbat.
- Gentleman Bastard: Justified and Invoked in Red Seas under Red Skies. Jean and Locke are forced to pose as the commanding officers of a sailing ship. Since they know nothing about sailing, they are provided with a seasoned underling who is technically junior to them in rank but more than capable of commanding a ship.
- In Harry Potter, Hermione does roughly ninety percent of all magical research that the lead trio requires and generally is the only reason the trio survive the first 2 or 3 years at all. She also ties with Dumbledore in terms of the amount of useful information she provides Harry with. That's not to say the rest of the trio isn't competent, as in the end, it becomes a much more equal partnership. On the villainous side of things, Barty Crouch Jr. was much more efficient than all the other Death Eaters put together. He even managed to fool Dumbledore for over a year. Notably, like Hermione, he was the top student of his class at Hogwarts.
- In The Holy Knights Dark Road, The Chosen One's sole bodyguard and attendant is Melia, a teenage girl who works for him partly out of fondness and partly because she likes having someone to criticize. Her duties include reverting his accidental transformation into a sheep, calming down divine beasts concerned about his welfare, and putting a stop to his embarrassing dramatics- by force, if necessary.
- I Left the A-Rank Party starts off with Yoke getting fed up with being this and quitting his high rank party that treats his efforts like garbage. It quickly becomes apparent that, without Yoke, his old party is hopelessly incompetent at even basic adventuring logistics. Furthermore, Yoke was also a Support Party Member whose buffs on allies and debuffs on enemies had been the entire reason the party got as highly ranked as it did in the first place. When Yoke forms his own party consisting of low-ranked adventurers he'd mentored a few years ago, his hyper competence means their rise is meteoric and they appreciate the skills he brings to the table.
- Jeeves and Wooster: The archetypal example of this trope is the valet (not butler) Jeeves, a highly intelligent, sophisticated, clever gentleman's gentleman to the Upper-Class Twit Wooster. The standard plot line involves Jeeves extricating Wooster from some trouble he's gotten himself into.
- Monkey King Sun Wukong from Journey to the West is a nearly invincible god who swears loyalty to the very gullible human monk Xuanzang, and ends up kicking the asses of most of the monsters and demons Xuanzang encounters on his journey.
- Fisk is this to Michael in the Knight and Rogue Series as the squire, he's the one that comes up with all the plans and always rescues Michael after some botched scheme by his 'employer'.
- The Land of Oz books have Kaliko, the level-headed majordomo of the hot-headed Card-Carrying Villain, the Nome King.
- Shelena from Loyal Enemies, who works for a herbalist. She says once or twice that many of the man's mixtures are either a placebo or actually mildly harmful, and her werewolf senses let her make brews that actually work. The townsfolk have realized this, so Shelena makes extra profit from selling her products on the side. Whenever the herbalist gets tetchy, she points out that he's paying her peanuts and threatens to leave, taking half the customers with her.
- Maledicte: Gilly serves as the title character's butler, spy, secretary, conscience, muscle, seer, and, on one occasion, poisoner. And he's good at all of it.
- Nero Wolfe: The titular detective relies heavily on Archie Goodwin. Wolfe is certainly no fool, but he is incredibly slothful, misanthropic and reclusive, and would be happy to spend his entire life alternating between tending to his orchids, eating and reading books if given the opportunity. Archie, on the other hand, is the one who does all the actual work — he nags Wolfe into taking jobs, he puts Wolfe's orders into effect, he gathers the evidence and witnesses for Wolfe to piece together the mystery, he manages Wolfe's finances to allow him to live his opulent lifestyle, and so on. He's even responsible for maintaining the germination records for Wolfe's beloved orchids. When Wolfe goes into hiding for several months, Archie seamlessly goes into business for himself and does better than his previous salary, though he finds it less interesting than working for Wolfe.
- In Phule's Company, Phule's butler Beeker calmly and practically organizes everything that the intensely focused and somewhat hyperactive Phule ignores when he's distracted by the big picture. He also invested his considerable pay to such good effect that he could probably retire to a private planet if he wanted to.
- Psmith: The title character was originally introduced into P.G. Wodehouse's ongoing Boarding School serial as cricketeer Mike Jackson's sidekick, but took over the series to the extent where Mike only existed to be saved from various authority figures by his Guile Hero antics.
- Puss in Boots: The title character is an Older Than Steam example and the archetypal Chessmaster Sidekick, elevating his master from Rags to Royalty through guile.
- Toros Revoke in Ravenor is the most dangerous and competent of the Secretists, yet remains a loyal "just doing my job, sir" to Jader Trice.
- The Raven Tower: Eolo is this for Mawat, which even Mawat eventually comes to recognize. Mawat isn't exactly stupid, but has a Hair-Trigger Temper and feels entitled as part of his position as heir to the Raven's Lease, not to mention his unflinching faith in the Raven. This means Eolo has to provide his lord with a voice of reason and to do all the actual investigation Mawat isn't able (or willing) to do, which he performs skillfully. Mawat failing to heed Eolo's advice eventually kills him in the climax.
- In Keith Laumer's Retief series of SF diplomacy stories, Jame Retief is always one rank below Magnan, despite being the only effective one of the pair. Of course, his techniques weren't terribly diplomacy oriented. Almost the whole point of the series was that the diplomatic corps is utterly useless, and only by breaking their (incredibly involuted and wrong-headed) rules can Retief achieve the supposed objectives of policy.
- In Safehold, Rayno slowly turns into this as his boss, Clyntahn, descends into Villainous Breakdown. By book eight, if it wasn't for the archbishop, Zion would be all but depopulated by reprisals, everyone with shred of competence in Church forces would be dead by Punishment and the Army would collapse onto itself.
- The Scarlet Pimpernel: If Collot d'Herbois had been in charge instead of Chauvelin in The Elusive Pimpernel, he would have just shot the Scarlet Pimpernel instead of planning an elaborate Fate Worse than Death.
- In The Shahnameh, the ever-more reluctant Rostem is this to Kay Kavus, who is constantly leading Iran into trouble.
- Sherlock Holmes: Dr. Watson is an actual MD (back when many "doctors" weren't), a war veteran, a skilled marksman, generally far more personable and likable than Holmes, and is even patient enough to put up with Holmes on a regular basis (which on it's own is probably deserving of a medal). It's also often show that, while he lacks Holmes' near supernatural detective abilities, Watson has picked up enough to be a reasonably capable detective himself. Downplayed in that Holmes is a highly intelligent and hyper-competent in his field, as well as capable of kicking ass himself when needed.
- Slacker: Aspiring Student Body President Jordan Tollefson may be a good student with some decent showmanship, but his biggest asset is his campaign manager, Felicia Hochuli. She is five times The Social Expert that he is, keeps up with important news, and once engaged in some Hero of Another Story Kid Detective antics to prove that Jordan was innocent of writing graffiti on the bulletin board.
- A Song of Ice and Fire:
- The Hand of the King is supposed to be this to the King, handling the pesky day-to-day business of running the Seven Kingdoms and acting on the King's behalf.
- Tywin Lannister almost singlehandedly brought about decades of prosperity to Westeros when he was Hand to Aerys, while Aerys was well on his way to earning his "Mad King" moniker. Deconstructed since Aerys became jealous of Tywin, culminating in him snubbing Tywin by rejecting the marriage proposal between his son Rhaegar and Tywin's daughter Cersei. He even had the gall to dismiss Tywin as a mere servant. Tywin retired from being the Hand in response, and the Kingdoms quickly went to hell after that.
- Under King Robert Baratheon, both Jon Arryn and Eddard Stark (for his brief time) kept the realm afloat and in prosperity while Robert ate, drank, and whored himself into an early grave.
- While under King Joffrey Baratheon, Tyrion Lannister temporarily serves as the Hand of the King in place of Lord Tywin, while Tywin is off fighting in the War of the Five Kings. Tyrion rather quickly cleanses the Small Council of yesmen and manages to organize a siege defense of King's Landing while King Joffrey is antagonizing crowds and generally not helping matters. When Tywin takes over once more, he is able to bring stability back to the realm by allowing the Freys and Boltons to go through with the Red Wedding and then seizing on the aftermath.
- Under King Tommen Baratheon, Cersei coddles him to the point of preventing him from making any decisions without him, and this causes the Seven Kingdoms to go to hell in a handbasket in record time and ultimately ends up a prisoner of the Faith Militant. On that, Ser Kevan Lannister (Tywin's brother) stepped into the role of Hand of the King, and just as quickly brought stability back to the realm, and setting the stage for the Seven Kingdoms to prosper again. Leading Varys to kill him and Pycelle for it.
- Davos is this to Stannis, while Stannis is more than capable of leading an army, Davos is the one who can keep it together, and gain more allies for Stannis, as his lord isn't much of a people person, and keeps him from being to influenced by Melisandre.
- Lord Randyll Tarly is this to Lord Mace Tyrell. While Mace is the lord of the Reach, with the Tarlys underneath him, he's quite a buffoon. Whenever people mention the success of the armies of the Tyrells and the Reach, they're really referring to just how dangerous of a soldier and battlefield commander Randyll Tarly is.
- Interestingly enough, Ser Addam Marbrand is this to the aforementioned Tywin Lannister, as one of the best swordsmen and commanders in the Lannister army, in addition to being versatile enough to handle whichever situation needs addressing, from commanding the cavalry forces to managing the Goldcloaks.
- The Hand of the King is supposed to be this to the King, handling the pesky day-to-day business of running the Seven Kingdoms and acting on the King's behalf.
- In Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You involves a full-blown alien invasion on humanity. One of the aliens' first acts is to kidnap all the high-ranking military leaders, who have gathered on one space station for a conference. The book notes that, after their subordinates took over their superiors' responsibilities, the effectiveness of humanity's military rose dramatically.
- Starter Villain (2023): Jake Baldwin unexpectedly wills his supervillain business to his estranged nephew Charlie, along with his long-time assistant Matilda, who actually knows the industry inside and out. In the end, it's all revealed to have been a ploy to eliminate Jake's rivals; Matilda is the real heir to the company, but Charlie gets a comfortable retirement for his efforts.
- Star Wars Expanded Universe:
- Some astromech droids truly keep their pilots in the air. Other than R2D2, the X-Wing novels brought us Corran Horn's droid Whistler, who can circumvent Restraining Bolts thanks to a custom internal layout, has advanced data-gathering programming for criminal investigation purposes and once ran a minor pro-New Republic resistance cell on a minor Imperial world. Other notable droids included Emtree, who operated a commodities brokerage out of the Rogue Squadron barracks until they were forced to throttle back his programming, and Tonin, who helped Lara Notsil to infiltrate and practically take over a Super Star Destroyer, which functioned as The Mothership of the Big Bad of the series.
- Jedi Academy Trilogy: In the third book, the commander of the stormtroopers Daala left behind at the Maw Installation serves this role to Tol Sivron and the other scientific leaders who he takes orders from. He is the only one who actually has any idea how to fly the Death Star protoype, and often makes reasonable tactical suggestions when the others have no idea what to do.
- Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities is the Hypercompetent Sidekick to his boss, C. J. Stryver. He does all the paperwork and is responsible for winning the one case we see them handle. He has no ambition, however, while his boss Stryver is always shouldering his way through life.
- TimeRiders features the support units Bob and Becks, especially with Becks. While Liam is the leader of all field missions, it is invariably the support units who bail him out of trouble. They are both stronger than regular men, faster, and are able to process an obscene amount of tactical data in a second. Becks especially qualifies, as she doesn't have the sheer size or strength of Bob, but is no less ruthless and often seen as cruel or monstrous in her ability to dance all over the enemy, exploiting tropes like the Honey Trap. But both swear undying loyalty to Liam, and to start with are near-incapable of independent decisions — they don't just accept being the sidekick, they require it.
- Near-future thriller Victoria, which chronicles a speculative Second Civil War, makes use of this. General Wesley, the villainous President Warner's military hatchetman, is far more competent and dangerous than is Warner himself, among other things authoring a plan of action against the incipient secessionist Confederation that would most likely have worked, but is shot down for political reasons in favor of an ineffective one. After Warner is killed in a terrorist attack, Wesley takes over the government himself.
- In Wolf Hall, Thomas Cromwell occupies this position for everyone he works for as soon as he leaves home, starting with some Dutch merchants who need some help dealing with customs agents. After he returns from mercenary work on the continent he helps a cloth merchant named Henry Wykys put his business into order (an appreciative Wykys suggests Cromwell marry his widowed daughter in appreciation, and it's a happy union), then he becomes Cardinal Wolsey's most valued man for his legal knowledge and considerable cunning. After Wolsey's fall, Cromwell becomes Henry VIII's right hand and is given the important but vaguely-defined position of Master Secretary, which affords him tremendous latitude to do whatever he thinks is necessary for Henry and the realm.
