Man there’s just so many shows with the side character who you think should totally be the protagonist because they’re so hardcore and intelligent, but they’re not, usually cause they’re a girl that the male leader has to prove himself to, and I just…
Lets think of some examples. The Matrix, The Lego Movie (lol), Star Wars maybe, every Assassins Creed since AC2, fucking TMNT, most DC and Marvel stuff including Iron Man, most James Bond films arguably Harry Potter since Hermione has more guts than any of her friends although it was written by a woman, the Running Man which was terrible, the list goes on…
Homestuck parodies this, I think, with its Leadership stuff. Karkat and John are not what you’d call hero protagonists, they are losers, but where most stories would usually build them into ideal warriors, their softness turns out to be the source of their strength and validity as leaders. While John eventually becomes a good fighter, his personality never changes, and Karkat’s personality just grows even softer while his skills remain shabby. But the fact they’d sacrifice themselves for the team is what counts.
Then you have the more blatant part of the parody; despite being the leaders, John and Karkat take nearly no part in the tactical decisions of their parties. Their role is to make sure everyone doesn’t kill each other. John gets bossed around a LOT and recieves most of his orders from Rose, then the scourge sisters and Karkat, then in B2 he’s sent on Scarfquest. Whereas Karkat is originally not even assigned a leadership role, so he takes it from a very skilled Terezi, who happily conplies because she’s much more equipped to coordinate from the periphary than the front… Combine this with Blue Team shenanigans, Karkat and Equius are team managers while TZ and mostly Aradia coordinate the gameplay + final battle. Also Kanaya creates the universe with Karkat so there’s that
Then there’s the B2 session which is a convoluted mess when it comes to leadership. Jane is the leader in the same sense John was. Dirk is the leader in the same sense Rose was, with the added Male Protagonist qualities to really rub it in. But as it turns out neither of them are the freaking leader!! Roxy rises to the ranks, despite being the sort of character usually reserved to seconds roles -and presented as such- because, in performing that role of being a peacekeeper, she worked her ass off to keep them together. And that’s what Skaia wants.
So when Vriska, a “more traditional and well equipped” female parody of the male asshole protagonist comes along to usurp Karkat, it turns out Karkat is STILL the Leader in the eyes of Skaia. Because he’s soft, because even if he isn’t good at Machiavellian ploys like the Scourge Sisters, he is far better at peacekeeping than any of them will ever be. Quite a feat since one of them is a goddamn demigod Seer of Mind. Karkat is more powerful than we know, and not for traditional reasons.
But yeah while Homestuck deconstructs all this, most stuff doesn’t emphasise the strengths of its loser protagonists peacekeeping skills, of which they usually have none outside of some random convoluted speech. The side character who is better at that sorta thing and often better at fighting/tactics usually gets shafted from protagdom because they have titties