Kick-butt female characters that overshadow whimpier men...

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Ever see those shows/movies where women get the upperhand over men?

And it's not like the guy couldn't take charge if he wanted to...

He's just too intimidated and infuated to do so; until it turns out she has a soft side.

Take for example Colette from Ratatouille - Let's face it, this girl is a nightmare. She was probably tried for attempted murder as a child or something. The idea that she can go from stabbing down the faux cook Linguini with kitchen knives to making out with the bumbling oaf is nearly too unbearable to imagine.

American Dragon: Jake Long - Rose. She and Jake in dragon form duke it out and the girl normally puts him to shame. But what's redeeming about them is that they fall in love in their normal identites, and even more touching when Jake goes to leaps and bounds to save the love of his young life.
 
nearly EVERY female character in Black Lagoon... honestly badass females are more common on that show then men are

Olivier Mira Armstrong from Full metal alchemist... capable of very easily beating up her much larger alchemist younger brother

Izumi Curtis from Full Metal alchemist... she's just a housewife :D

Lina Inverse from Slayers... dragon slave! nuff' said

Kim Possible... Ron and all her male adversaries got nothing on her
 
I once made a picture related to this trope:
patterns.jpg
 
Pixar loves this trope:

Colette and Linguini
EVE and WALL-E
Ellie and Carl
Dory and Marlin to a smaller extent; Dory's not a tough-as-nails badass but she was certainly the assertive one.

The cancelled Newt would've followed along with a bookworm male and street-smart female.
 
This trope is extremely common, actually (in American media, anyway). The girl being the smarter/stronger of the two compared to the bumbling idiot/normal guy. Inspector Gadget takes it one step further by making it a little girl being better than her 'highly trained police dad'. It's extremely rare to see examples of the opposite, since they tend to get lampooned on being 'sexist' towards women.
 
Rally Vincent in Gunsmith Cats. In the OAV movie she and May taked care of the male bad guys.

Also in Sailor Moon, the Sailor Scouts/Senshi even if Sailor Moon was clutz at the beginning kick the "monster of the day" solidly. Tuxedo Mask and to latter extent the Moonlight Knight arrive by throwing a rose to allow a diversion (however there was some episodes who did more than that except the moment when he was brainwashed by Queen Beryl) for the Sailors Scouts to conterattack.
 
"Extreamly rare" Seriously? How many books/movies/tv shows made in the past couple of millennia potray women as token love interests at best? Have you never seen a Michael Bay movie?
 
Yeah, I mean, have you never seen Rayman: The Animated Series? Betina...ugh. Freaking Mary Sue.

Anyway, 7 from 9 is definitely this. I mean if you compare her with...like...5. Seriously.
 
I guess in that case, the little girl form Johnny Bravo. I forget her name, but she was always the smarter one that got Johnny out of trouble.
 
Inspector Gadget was Penny's uncle, not her father.




Her name was Little Suzy, and she was also voiced by the pre-Avatar: The Last Airbender Mae Whittman (Whittman voiced Katara on the latter series).
 
I'm not sure I understand the point of this thread, are we just going to list every example of a female character who's more competant then her male counterpart or are we going to have some meaningful discussion of the trope?
 
Hey we always can if we want to... if you know how to steer it
For instance some of these examples, namely those coming from comedy shows, has got me thinking about something that commonly pops up... namely how common it is for the male character to often be the comic relief, where as the female plays the straight man (thus being the more competent of the pair).

Now what exactly is up with that? why is always the male to play the comic relief and the female the straight man?... sometimes you get both the male and female playing the comic relief, but off the top of my head i do not recall a time when a female got to play the less competent comic relief while the male got to play the straight-man... well except anti-cosmo and anti-wanda who were subversion of cosmo and wanda
 
Exactly. The "default dynamic" between men and women in fiction (at least fiction created in the western world, but probably in pretty much all other parts of the world as well) is that the man is the active one who uses his mind and/or body to overcomes obstacles, while the woman is passive (often a victim) and something the male can "win" if he plays his cards right. Sure they might give the male characters some personality flaws and try to portray the women as "down to earth" and intelligent, but in the end it's the man who is the competent one since he is the one to actually solve problems and get things done.
 
Classic tidbit about Inspector Gadget: this character from the 80s series was voiced by the great Don Adams who is most famous for his role as Maxwell Smart in the classic 60s spy sitcom, Get Smart.
 
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