Hypercompetent characters rely on certain behind the scenes shenanigans, and they turn into a puzzle for reader to solve. Imagine Sherlock Holmes books, where you see the world through Dr.Watson only to witness the genius of main character in expose at the end of the movie. This is a common trope for detective movies or TV shows, including female protagonist like with Murder, She Wrote where the main heroine is basically female Sherlock Holmes who also plays her own Dr. Watson using her "housewife" mask - very similar to how inspector Colombo pretends to be dumb in order to solve various mysteries.
If you lack a tension, you can also add a big bad on the background. Like with Sherlock Holmes who had Professor Moriarty as his evil twin, who turned even Holmes victories into strategic defeats and whatnot. This is often used trope in these hypercompetent hero stories, e.g. as when Ender in Ender's Game wins the Game, only to realize that he was duped into genocide or some such.
Also you can always do the Alien trick - just write a role for a man and turn it into a female role. This is how Ellen Ripley was born. She absolutely is hypercompetent heroine. She always connects the dots, has the correct knowledge for the situation be it learning how to operate a gun in 1 minute tutorial only to then rig a flamethrower and grenade launcher under when to situation calls. The same for somehow being robot operator right when it is needed to defeat the alien queen.
If you wanted to turn your mother into a badass, just look at Walking Dead and Carol Peletier. A battered housewife is actually a hidden gem. She can navigate social situations like when inside the compound she used her easy going persona to uncover cult mysteries etc. But she is also a badass sniper on a level of special unit commando Rambo who single-handedly dismantled cannibal cult from the outside rescuing the rest of the group. She can do it all, she can survive on her own out in the middle of zombie apocalypse, she can be a mother and nurturer, she can be a high-stakes spy using her acting skills as the spy and she can be cold blooded killer, Spetznaz executioner.
In short the hypercompetent characters are not interesting for their own growth - although there is a room there as well, especially if they need to get competent in some new realm such as social relations or whatnot. Their main job is structural to the story, they are part of the worldbuilding and/or the plot device.
georgioz
9hr ago
So Achilles had his heel as a literal weakness, but he was also full of moral flaws
I just want to add that the heel gimmick was a later addition by Romans - who considered themselves the descendants of Trojans - as a propaganda to diminish Achilles's victories. In the original Iliad, Achilles had no gimmick like that, he was just that awesome.
Of course they do, there is a criminal conspiracy term under many jurisdictions and these conspiracies are prosecuted all the time ranging from Drug or weapon trafficking, white collar fraud, RICO conspiracies, various government corruption schemes and many more.
Actually we are in fact not familiar with "the type". Or to be more precise, there is more than just one type. The tinfoil hat chemtrail wacko is one type. But there are many other types, in general all leftisim is just one huge conspiracy theory. You know the type: everything is because of capitalism and billionaires. Or alternatively everything is because of white supremacy or patriarchy or whatnot. These are all the same level of "theories" than your regular schizoid who sees aliens everywhere, but for some reason being a commie leftist who thinks everything is because of capitalism is somehow considered as a normal thing.
So I agree with @Primaprimaprima that "conspiracy theory" label is primarily a propaganda term that is used just as an ad hominem attack on opponents epistemological credentials. It is often used in battery of ad hominems where one attacks all three faculties:
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