History Main / ThirdActStupidity

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** Even better, the reason Hades did all this was because of a prophecy that was stated verbatim, "Should Hercules fight, you will fail." His super-strength was ''not'' [[ExactWords stated as a requirement]]. So after sidelining Hercules, he then sends a giant Cyclops to basically ensure that Hercules does in fact fight. And naturally, Hades's plan fails.

** Especially since they are lawyers and not {{NCIS}} agents. Mac was a Marine, and a badass one at that, but still.

* For all his [[TheTrickster Trickster]] and EvilGenius traits, in NorseMythology Loki's fall was going to a feast with no exit plan and continually insulting everyone until they [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment bound him under the earth with snake venom dripping into his eyes.]]

* In ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', [[CardCarryingVillain Hazama]]/[[AxCrazy Yuuki]][[{{Troll}} Terumi]] fell hard on this trope. He spent ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCalamityTrigger'' standing on the sidelines of the GroundhogDayLoop, memorizing everyone's patterns, carefully manipulating events, setting up [[CrazyPrepared lots and lots of preparations]] and playing XanatosSpeedChess with [[LittleMissBadass Rachel]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Alucard]], one of the few besides himself with RippleEffectProofMemory, for the chance of breaking the time loop with a head start, all without letting slip he's a bad guy. And at the end of the first act/game, the loop ''is'' finally broken, all of his plans play out smoothly and everything ends in his advantage... In ''VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift'', he has a spell come into effect that allows him to observe all timelines of the [[TitleDrop Continuum Shift]], effectively allowing him to ''choose'' the exact timeline in which the protagonists hold the IdiotBall, he successfully forges [[JapaneseMythology Kusanagi:]] [[RageAgainstTheHeavens Sword of the Godslayer]], outmaneuvers [[TheOmniscient Takamagahara]], and finally [[TheBadGuysWin gets to declare himself the winner of the second act/game]]. Hey, I told you he was CrazyPrepared... However, come ''VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma'', he makes several stupid, amateurish mistakes that ultimately end up getting him KilledOffForReal by the heroes midway through the third act/game...

[[folder:{{Mythlogy}}]]
* For all his [[TheTrickster Trickster]] and EvilGenius traits, in NorseMythology Loki's fall was going to a feast with no exit plan and continually insulting everyone until they [[CoolandUnusualPunishment bound him under the earth with snake venom going into his eyes.]]

** Likewise, this trope was actually {{foreshadow|ing}}ed during ''Continuum Shift EXTEND''. ''Slight Hope'' serves as a control environment where Hazama is void of foresight regarding a single threat ([[spoiler:an extracontinuual]] Makoto) and has to adapt to it on the fly. Not only does he fail to properly evaluate the threat (going so far as to ''[[LooseLips leak a vital detail]]'' to it), but he fails to keep in touch with his partner in crime Relius Clover for the event where said threat [[TakeAThirdOption defuses the trap set for it via proxy]]. End result:

* In ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', [[CardCarryingVillain Hazama]]/[[AxCrazy Terumi]] [[{{Troll}} Yuuki]] fell hard on this trope. He spent ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCalamityTrigger'' standing on the sidelines of the GroundhogDayLoop, memorizing everyone's patterns, carefully manipulating events, setting up [[CrazyPrepared lots and lots of preparations]] and playing XanatosSpeedChess with [[LittleMissBadass Rachel]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Alucard]], one of the few besides himself with RippleEffectProofMemory, for the chance of breaking the time loop with a head start, all without letting slip he's a bad guy. And at the end of the first act/game, the loop ''is'' finally broken, all of his plans play out smoothly and everything ends in his advantage... In ''VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift'', he has a spell come into effect that allows him to observe all timelines of the [[TitleDrop Continuum Shift]], effectively allowing him to ''choose'' the exact timeline in which the protagonists hold the IdiotBall, he successfully forges [[JapaneseMythology Kusanagi:]] [[RageAgainstTheHeavens Sword of the Godslayer]], outmanouvres [[TheOmniscient Takamagahara]], and finally [[TheBadGuysWin gets to declare himself the winner of the second act/game]]. Hey, I told you he was CrazyPrepared... However, come ''VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma'', he makes several stupid, amateurish mistakes that ultimately end up getting him KilledOffForReal by the heroes midway through the third act/game...

---> '''Hazama''': [[YouMeddlingKids Thanks to your flittering around doing as you please,]] [[SpannerInTheWorks my plans have gone fair-to-middling]] '''[[SpannerInTheWorks FUBAR!]]'''

* In the ''CriminalMinds'' episode "Our Darkest Hour", the detective helping the team on the case, Matt Spicer, experiences this and forgets protocol at the end of the episode, [[spoiler:leading him and Morgan into Spicer's house without waiting for backup, allowing the Unsub to trap them, kill Spicer, incapacitate Morgan and kidnap Spicer's youngest daughter]]. It's justified in that Spicer was dealing with an issue in his family, [[spoiler:which the Unsub had targeted once before and killed everyone except for him]].

* Sosuke Aizen, the BigBad of ''Anime/{{Bleach}}'', is a big offender of this; one could even make the case that this was [[InvokedTrope invoked]] to justify this behemoth's downfall. He more or less singlehandedly takes out the entire cast with a mixture of [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bastardy]] and being one of the strongest shinigami in existence, but as the final battle approaches, he devolves in a fairly straightforward monster (literally) who tosses aside his lucidity in favour of brute strength. [[CurbStompBattle It doesn't end well for him.]]

* In FateStayNight, this is the only weakness of [[{{Tsundere}} Rin]]. She is good at the third most important thing, the second most important thing, but she always screws up when it comes to the first.

* The original ending of ''APerfectMurder'' (the remake of ''DialMForMurder'') was an aversion of this. [[spoiler:The wife shoots her husband for trying to have her killed, and fakes a struggle. Since she had evidence he planned to have her killed, the police shrug it off, and she actually commits the perfect murder.]] But it was decided that the audience couldn't morally identify with her, and then we had the wife doing this trope.
* ''OnceUponATimeInMexico'': The FemmeFatale spots her ex-boyfriend wounded in the street from a distance; the sensible thing to do would be to snipe him, as she was perfectly capable. But instead she goes down to talk to him, so that they could have a dramatic final exchange and [[spoiler: so that Sands could shoot her]].

* Sakharine of ''{{Film/Tintin}}'' is a very smart villain, preparing for many different disasters, keeping enemies alive only when their information is needed, being careful to not commit open robberies of the {{MacGuffin}}s, and pulling a ISurrenderSuckers on the good guys. Then when threatening to destroy the treasure map, he chooses to monologue at length about how the heroes have failed to beat him, buying enough time for Tintin to sneak around and steal it from him.

* In ''BlazBlue'', [[CardCarryingVillain Hazama]]/[[AxCrazy Terumi]] [[{{Troll}} Yuuki]] fell hard on this trope. He spent ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCalamityTrigger'' standing on the sidelines of the GroundhogDayLoop, memorizing everyone's patterns, carefully manipulating events, setting up [[CrazyPrepared lots and lots of preparations]] and playing XanatosSpeedChess with [[LittleMissBadass Rachel]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Alucard]], one of the few besides himself with RippleEffectProofMemory, for the chance of breaking the time loop with a head start, all without letting slip he's a bad guy. And at the end of the first act/game, the loop ''is'' finally broken, all of his plans play out smoothly and everything ends in his advantage... In ''VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift'', he has a spell come into effect that allows him to observe all timelines of the [[TitleDrop Continuum Shift]], effectively allowing him to ''choose'' the exact timeline in which the protagonists hold the IdiotBall, he successfully forges [[JapaneseMythology Kusanagi:]] [[RageAgainstTheHeavens Sword of the Godslayer]], outmanouvres [[TheOmniscient Takamagahara]], and finally [[TheBadGuysWin gets to declare himself the winner of the second act/game]]. Hey, I told you he was CrazyPrepared... However, come ''VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma'', he makes several stupid, amateurish mistakes that ultimately end up getting him KilledOffForReal by the heroes midway through the third act/game...

** This is arguably a case where the trope is justified though: Hazama/Terumi had spent over [[TimeAbyss 72,500 years]] in looped time, effectively getting stuck in old patterns. Due to there being no more time loops he suddenly couldn't take his time to memorize his opponents' moves, abuse trial-and-error for fun and profit and [[ResetButton make numerous attempts to win]] until he came out on top, and thanks to [[TimeyWimeyBall the space-time continuum]] [[TemporalParadox being messed up]] due to two warring gods, observing outcomes was rendered useless as well and, robbed of his cheats, Hazama/Terumi simply couldn't adapt to the real pace of the world.

* In "Draft Day" Cleveland GM Kevin Costner is tricked into an epically bad trade by the Seattle GM. That level of stupidity happens about ounce every 20 years. The movie is about Costner dealing with the fallout amid team politics, etc. Then in act three he manages to pull of two even more unlikely trades - one against the now suddenly stupid Seattle GM.

* In "Draft Day" Cleveland GM Kevin Costner is tricked into an epically bad trade by the Seattle GM. That level of stupidity happens about ounce every 20 years. The movie is about Costner dealing with the fallout amid team politics, etc. (Better than it sounds:)) Then in act three he manages to pull of two even more unlikely trades - one against the now suddenly stupid Seattle GM.

* Part of the fun of ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' was [[ZigZaggingTrope zig zagging this]]. He's seem like a fool, and even seem to fall into this, but it's all an act.
** The irony is his act is an attempt to invoke this trope, seeming careless, stupid and oblivious so his enemies will slip up and Columbo can nail them.
* The BigBad in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' special "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E17E18TheEndOfTime The End Of Time]]" tells the Master in the most insulting terms that the moment his plan (which the Master is an essential part of) succeeds, the Master [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness will be killed]]. While the Master is standing next to the machine that forms another essential part of the plan. He also passes up numerous opportunities to [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim shoot the Doctor]] despite having previously shown a willingness to kill people for disagreeing with him; and the Doctor ''isn't'' part of his plan.
** In the original series story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainofMorbius The Brain of Morbius]]", the Doctor defeats and captures Morbius by the middle of the last episode, deciding to remove his brain and return it to the Time Lords. It's fairly logical for him to threaten Solon, the MadScientist responsible for giving Morbius his new body, into doing the job for him. It's less logical for him to leave Solon alone to do the job and go and check on Sarah in a room with a lock on the door. To the surprise of no-one but him, Solon locks them in and revives Morbius.

** Frieza reveals to Goku during their fight that he's only using a tiny percentage of his power, which he then proves by upping his power to half of its maximum to [[{{CurpStompBattle}} smash monkey.]] So it's actually not unlikely that Vegeta ''couldn't'' sense just out outclassed he was. [[{{SmallNameBigEgo}} Not that this sort of behavior is out of character for him.]]

* Pretty well describes the Colonel in ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. Up until then he's very level headed and conscientious of the dangers posed by the alien planet, but suddenly he loses his shit and decides to attack the stupid space elves on ground. All his forces are therefore at a disadvantage. You would think he would just sit on the strategic assets it's his job to hold (and that he already possesses) and just wipe them out with his force multipliers when they have to come to him. You could argue that it's supposed to be RevengeBeforeReason, but nothing in his methodical professionalism or grim determination before that point really suggests that the betrayal of a single subordinate would have that effect on him.

** This is arguably a case where the trope is justified though: Hazama/Terumi had spent over [[TimeAbyss 72,500 years]] in looped time, effectively getting stuck in old patterns. Due to there being no more time loops he suddenly couldn't take his time to memorize his opponents' moves, abuse trial-and-error for fun and profit and [[ResetButton make numerous attempts to win]] until he came out on top, and thanks to the time-space continuum being messed up due to two warring gods, observing outcomes was rendered useless as well and, robbed of his cheats, Hazama/Terumi simply couldn't adapt to the real pace of the world.