History Main / StatingtheSimpleSolution

** Chief also comes close to shooting Light. Although [[spoiler:his bullet has blanks. Light isn't so lucky about Matsuda, though.]]

* In ''DragonBallZ'', King Cold advises his son that it would be easier to just blow up the Earth from space. Frieza however rejects this notion, stating that he wants to see Goku suffer. An episode later Frieza is killed.

* NorseMythology tells that, when the gods had bound [[BigBadassWolf Fenrir]] so he would be unable to roam free, Loki apparently asked the other gods why they simply didn't kill it now that it was bound, knowing that a prophecy foretold that Fenrir would kill Odin. The gods were reluctant to do so because they didn't want to stain the holy place he was bound in with the wolf's blood (and letting it go first was certainly not an option). In other words, this trope is OlderThanPrint.

* [[http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=713157 There is an old parable]] about ancient Greek philosophers discussing how many teeth are in a horse's mouth. One naive young man suggests finding an actual horse and counting the teeth, much to the outrage of his peers.
** Empirical evidence and [[ThatOtherWiki original research]] has no place in a proper discussion of ''theory''. The consensus of the scientists of the time was quite literally that if you had to go out and preform an experiment in order to prove your theory, then your theory was a bad one.
** In History of Animals Aristotle claimed that human males have more teeth than females despite having been married twice.

* ''{{Portal2}}'': In the end, [[spoiler:Glados states that she's been ignoring the simple solution of how to get rid of Chell: just let her go. ''Killing'' Chell is very difficult and causes Glados no end of problems... so why not just give Chell what she wants and let her go? Everyone's happy that way.]]

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** More mundanely, the Half-Blood Prince's textbook in [[HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheHalf-BloodPrince the sixth book]] has "Just shove a bezoar down their throats" scrawled over an entire section about poison antidotes.

* [[http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=713157 There is an old parable]] about philosophers discussing how many teeth are in a horse's mouth. One naive young man suggests finding an actual horse and counting the teeth, much to the outrage of his peers.
** Empirical evidence and [[ThatOtherWiki original research]] has no place in a proper discussion of ''theory''.

A SubTrope of WhyDontYouJustShootHim. See also LampshadeHanging.

* EdEddnEddy: The Eds want to watch a monster movie at Ed's place, but Sarah keeps kicking them out.

* In ''{{Eragon}}'', the titular character is told by [[TheObiWan Brom]] that the reason why magic users don't do this is because the recipient of the attack always has just enough time to get in a similar attack before they croak; thus a kind of unwritten rule between magical duelists is that they have to bend the enemy's mind to their will before the finishing blow.

** Angelus insists on using his mind games on Buffy, while Spike insists that he finish her off before she gets really mad and kills them all. Guess what? [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy He's right]]... after what Angelus did to upset Giles, not only did they have to contend with a very brassed-off Slayer, but she was [[IncrediblyLamePun hot]] on the heels of her Watcher, [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome who was wailing on Angelus with a flaming baseball bat]] [[KillItWithFire after throwing a molotov cocktail into the factory]].

* In the ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'' episode "Wormhole X-Treme!", O'Neill is acting as the military advisor to Martin's TV show, and when the question is brought up of "How can they defeat the giant alien without being weightless?", O'Neill says this exact line, and is commended for his innovative thinking. O'Neill was not impressed.

* In ''SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', Mister Mxyzptlk's wife asks Mxyzptlk why he simply doesn't destroy Superman instead of playing games with him after Mxyzptlk expresses his annoyance with being repeatedly out-foxed by the Man of Steel. Mxyzptlk (who is a RealityWarper on level with a PhysicalGod) decides to follow her advice... by building an overly complicated HumongousMecha [[CompletelyMissingThePoint and trying to fight Superman with it]]. It works about as well as can be imagined.

* NorseMythology tells that, when the gods had bound [[BigBadassWolf Fenrir]] so he would be unable to roam free, Loki apparently asked the other gods why they simply didn't kill it now that it was bound, knowing that a prophecy foretold that Fenrir would kill Odin. The gods were reluctant to do so because they didn't want to stain the holy place he was bound in with the wolf's blood (and letting it go first was certainly not an option). In other words, this trope is OlderThanDirt.

* In ''TheCountOfMonteCristo'', ever-practical Jacopo asks this question of Edmond Dantes in response to hearing his plan to slowly destroy his enemies:

* ''JusticeLeague'' (also part of the DCAU)

* When Joker obtains godlike power in the "Emperor Joker" episode of ''BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', Harley Quinn suggests that, now that he's got Batman where he wants him, he should take his mask off and find out who he is. Note that he actually kills Batman. Repeatedly.

* A heroic example in ''BeastWars'': After Optimus Primal [[spoiler: took the Spark of Optimus Prime into his body to thwart Megatron's assassination attempt]] Megatron came into the Ark with Inferno to finish the job. Despite [[spoiler: Prime's spark]] giving Primal the size, as well as the physical and ''fire'' power of a large Autobot, he hesitates to attack since he might alter history. Regardless, after Megatron and Optimus argue a bit, Rattrap gets fed up and asks:

* In several episodes of ''[[SATAMSonicTheHedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM]]'' (as well as in some early issues of the [[Comicbook/SonicTheHedgehog Archie Sonic comic]]), Robotnik has Sonic at his mercy, and Sniveley asks why Robotnik doesn't just roboticize him. Snively also has a habit of questioning Robotnik's more elaborate plots.

* ''SouthPark'': Knowing Cartman's [[InstantAIJustAddWater trapper keeper]] will take over the world...

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''EarthWormJim'', when he sneaks up behind an EliteMook with a ''towed howitser'', aims it, then sighs he can't do it, since it's too easy. He then takes out the mook with a ridicilous ambush, like he did with the others. It should be noted though that when it comes to shooting wildly with his raygun, Jim has little hesitation.