History Main / ThirdActStupidity

>--'''Thanos''': You should have [[spoiler: gone for the head...]]

<--'''Thanos''': You should have [[spoiler: gone for the head...]]

* ''Recap/TintinKingOttokarsSceptre'': After narrowly preventing the sceptre's thief from [[RunForTheBorder crossing the border to Borduria]], Tintin, having not eaten in two days, notices an apparent farm on the other side of the border and succums to the temptation of crossing it, still carrying the sceptre.

** Of course, the Hero is the spitting image of his dead daughter - a daughter he'd already been mortified by having to kill before. It was possible he wasn't able to bring himself to deliver the killing strike this time.
* In ''Film/DraftDay'', the Cleveland General Manager (Creator/KevinCostner) is tricked into an epically bad trade by the Seattle GM. That level of stupidity happens about once 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.

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' Zankou, S7's Big Bad is smart enough to come up with some cold-blooded torture that weakens the sisters' confidence enough so he can steal the Book of Shadows. Then in the finale his IQ seems to plummet and the sisters manage to goad him into doing something stupid so they can attack him. It was a shame because he was one of the few worthy opponents they had up to that point.

* In the ''Series/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]].

* Harmon Rab and Sarah Mackenzie of ''Series/{{JAG}}'' are often guilty of this. When it came time for the episode climax, they would often confront the bad guy alone. They are partners, but they seem to forget that when it comes to ''one of the very reasons law enforcement has a partner system''.

* 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 [[Myth/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 killed by the heroes midway through the third act/game... [[spoiler:In ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCentralFiction'', the final act/game of the series, it turns out that he [[LivingOnBorrowedTime narrowly survived]], and while he does wise up, he's ultimately forced to wait in the shadows for a perfect opportunity to rear its face before he can act... Once he does, however, he achieves a harrowing NearVillainVictory and is only narrowly defeated and killed after a long, hard-fought battle]].

** Luckily he survives, and because there are standard sportsmanship rules in an Agni Kai, Zuko still won the moment she attacked a spectator. However, you've still got a paranoid lunatic shooting lightning everywhere and Agni Kai or not, she has to be stopped, so on with the show!

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Syracuse_(213%E2%80%93212_BC)]] The Siege of Syracuse during the Second Punic War. To defend his city, Archimedes had designed defensive weapons such as ships-sinking cranes, ballistae, onagers, and possibly even a ''heat ray'' made of focused mirrors. They were so successful that eventually the defenders became overconfident and got drunk on duty, during a festival of Artemis, allowing a group of Romans to breach their defenses and take control of the outer walls.

* In VisualNovel/FateStayNight, this is the (self-acknowledged) critical weakness of [[{{TheLancer}} Rin]] - she gets all the little things right, gets all the middle-sized things right, and then screws it up when it really counts. [[{{Foil}} This helps contrast her]] with [[TheHero Shirou]], who's [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass the opposite.]]

* In ''[[{{Disney/Hercules}} Hercules]]'', Hades has managed to get Hercules to agree to give up his super-strength in exchange for Megara's survival and safety. So, what does Hades then do? While he's taking over Mount Olympus, he sends a giant Cyclops to attack Hercules, who will likely be with [[LoveInterest Megara]], thus making it highly likely that she will be harmed in the crossfire. Granted he did reveal some awful truths about her which likely broke them up, but it is still a risk not worth taking. And since the deal is immediately nullified if she's harmed, he has effectively ensured that his plan will fail.

Compare LoweredMonsterDifficulty, PrideBeforeAFall, ThirdActMisunderstanding, WhyDontYouJustShootHim, and YouCantThwartStageOne.

* This happens in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheWitchsGhost''. The gang go to help a man named Ben Ravencroft clear his ancestor's name because she was accused of being a witch. Once they find her book, he reveals that she was one. As he tells them that he's going to release her from the book, get magic powers, and [[CrushKillDestroy basically destroy all]], they only give him the "You won't get away with this" speech and [[WhatAnIdiot WAIT FOR HIM TO SUMMON HIS POWERS!!]] Of course, they're not going to tackle him before he reads the book aloud, otherwise the movie would be over.

* Double-subverted in ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'': Artemis specifically refers to the "third stage of operations" as the time ''not'' to get careless, and then [[spoiler:sends Juliet downstairs to check on Holly, who has regained her magic. [[JustifiedTrope Although he didn't know it at the time]].]]

* In the novel ''Some Kind of Hero'', the main character spends the entire book telling everyone how dangerous her supervillain ex-boyfriend is and how under ''no'' circumstances should they touch him, even for a moment, since his superpower is to manipulate the powers of anyone he's touching, including in ways that are lethal, like removing RequiredSecondaryPowers that keep them safe frm their own powers. At the end of the book, he's finally arrested and being sent to prison for his crimes when he asks if she'll give him a goodbye kiss. She inexplicably obliges, and he [[BroughtDownToNormal steals all her powers]].

** It wasn't the taunt in of itself that was Zuko's mistake. He taunted Azula for the specific purpose of drawing out her lightning attack. You can even see Zuko preparing to redirect the lightning. Zuko's mistake (aside from not just swallowing his damn pride and not attempt to get Azula to use lightning just so that he can show that he can redirect it now) was that he underestimated how lucid Azula still was. Even in her VillainousBreakdown, she still thought clearly enough to realize that targeting Katara, not Zuko, was the best move.

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* Harmon Rab and Sarah Mackenzie of ''Series/{{JAG}}'' are often guilty of this. When it came time for the episode climax, they would often confront the bad guy alone. They are partners, but they seem to forget that when it comes to ''one of the very reasons law enforcement has a partner system''.
** Especially since they are lawyers and not Series/{{NCIS}} agents. Mac was a Marine, and a badass one at that, but still.

** The BigBad in the special [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "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.
** The Monks trilogy of Series 10 technically has Third ''Episode'' Stupidity. "Extremis" establishes them as all-seeing, RealityWarper villains planning for every possible contingency in their plan to conquer Earth, which pays off for them in "The Pyramid at the End of the World". They show up at a point where humanity is doomed to be wiped out -- unless they give up their freedom to the Monks -- '''and''' the Doctor is in a vulnerable state due to [[spoiler: blindness that he won't admit to others]]. The Doctor stops the crisis '''but''' ends up endangered, [[spoiler: and his companion Bill sells out humanity to save him in hopes he can save the day again]]! With that, "The Lie of the Land" picks up six months later with the Monks having brainwashed most of humanity into believing them to have always been benevolent superiors. But despite their amazing powers they manage to miss [[spoiler: the Doctor's faked loyalty to them, his companion-assisted escape, and the resultant plan to undo them]] and put up ''very'' little of a fight against the good guys, with only a few tertiary characters perishing. Once their hold over humanity is broken, they...leave. The episode works to justify this by having a character who's previously dealt with the Monks explain that they don't think through ''holding on'' to their power once they have it, but that still comes after two episodes in which they were nigh-omnipotent and the Doctor legitimately had no hope of outwitting them.
* In the ''Series/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]].
* In the third-season episode [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS3E10Maveth "Maveth"]] on Series/AgentsOfSHIELD, the current head of [[AncientConspiracy Hydra]] is holding [[Main/BadassBookworm Simmons]] hostage while her partner, Fitz, is off performing a dangerous mission on his behalf. At one point, Simmons overhears the evil scientists making a mistake in their calculations and corrects them, stating explicitly that she helped only to ensure Fitz's safe return. Instead of using this leverage to his advantage, the evil mastermind, who has for decades orchestrated an elaborate plot leading up to this very moment, informs Simmons that he has [[Main/YouHaveNoChanceToSurvive no intention of letting Fitz return alive]], thus eliminating any incentive for her to cooperate with him.

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* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Syracuse_(213–212_BC)]] The Siege of Syracuse during the Second Punic War. To defend his city, Archimedes had designed defensive weapons such as ships-sinking cranes, ballistae, onagers, and possibly even a ''heat ray'' made of focused mirrors. They were so successful that eventually the defenders became overconfident and got drunk on duty, during a festival of Artemis, allowing a group of Romans to breach their defenses and take control of the outer walls.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Syracuse_(397_BC)]] The Siege of Syracuse during the Second Punic War. To defend his city, Archimedes had designed defensive weapons such as ships-sinking cranes, ballistae, onagers, and possibly even a ''heat ray'' made of focused mirrors. They were so successful that eventually the defenders became overconfident and got drunk on duty, during a festival of Artemis, allowing a group of Romans to breach their defenses and take control of the outer walls.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Syracuse_(397_BC)]] during the Second Punic War. To defend his city, Archimedes had designed defensive weapons such as ships-sinking cranes, ballistae, onagers, and possibly even a ''heat ray'' made of focused mirrors. They were so successful that eventually the defenders became overconfident and got drunk on duty, during a festival of Artemis, allowing a group of Romans to breach their defenses and take control of the outer walls.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Syracuse_(214%E2%80%93212_BC) The Siege of Syracuse]] during the Second Punic War. To defend his city, Archimedes had designed defensive weapons such as ships-sinking cranes, ballistae, onagers, and possibly even a ''heat ray'' made of focused mirrors. They were so successful that eventually the defenders became overconfident and got drunk on duty, during a festival of Artemis, allowing a group of Romans to breach their defenses and take control of the outer walls.

** Luckily he survives, and because there are standard sportsmanship rules in an Agni Kai, Zuko still won the moment she attacked a spectator.

* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' Zankou, S7's Big Bad is smart enough to come up with some cold-blooded torture that weakens the sisters' confidence enough so he can steal the Book of Shadows. Then in the finale his IQ seems to plummet and the sisters manage to goad him into doing something stupid so they can attack him. It was a shame because he was one of the few worthy opponents they had up to that point.

* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'': Iron Man, Spider Man, Doctor Strange, Nebula and the Guardians (minus Gamora, Rocket and Groot) concoct a plan to ambush Thanos that goes off without a hitch, almost succeeding in getting Thanos's Infinity Gauntlet off him (and the four stones it contains). Then Quill learns that [[spoiler:Gamora is dead]], and forgets all about getting the glove off Thanos, letting him get back to full power and wipe the floor with them, and leading [[spoiler:to his getting all six stones and instantly wiping out half the life in the universe. Including Quill]].

This is when for most of a work, the hero or the villain has been reasonably smart in his/her/its actions. But if that character acts just as smart in the climax, it would be [[CurbStompBattle over in a minute]]. Time for this SubTrope of IdiotBall.

For example, a cop protagonist has done just about everything with his/her partner, until it comes time to confront the murderer, and then the cop does it all alone.

* 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 [[Myth/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...[[spoiler:but then it turns out [[LivingOnBorrowedTime he wasn't so dead after all]] and wises up for the final act/game to nearly [[TheBadGuysWin win out again]] and is only narrowly defeated and killed after a long, hard-fought battle]].

* In ''[[{{Disney/Hercules}} Hercules]]'', Hades has managed to get Hercules to agree to give up his super-strength in exchange for Megara's survival and safety. So, what does Hades then do? While he's taking over Mount Olympus, he sends a giant Cyclops to attack Hercules, who will no doubt be with [[LoveInterest Megara]], thus making it highly likely that she will be harmed in the crossfire. And since the deal is immediately nullified if she's harmed, he has effectively ensured that his plan will fail.

* For all his [[TheTrickster Trickster]] and EvilGenius traits, in Myth/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.]]
** Actually he was able to leave due to [[SacredHospitality hospitality rules]]. He then proceeded to build a house with four doors so he could see danger coming from any direction. It was after this that he was captured.

** The Monks trilogy of Series 10 technically has Third ''Episode'' Stupidity. "Extremis" establishes them as all-seeing, RealityWarper villains planning for every possible contingency in their plan to conquer Earth, which pays off for them in "The Pyramid at the End of the World". They show up at a point where humanity is doomed to be wiped out -- unless they give up their freedom to the Monks -- '''and''' the Doctor is in a vulnerable state due to [[spoiler: blindness that he won't admit to others]]. The Doctor stops the crisis '''but''' ends up endangered, [[spoiler: and his companion Bill sells out humanity to save him in hopes he can save the day again]]! With that, "The Lie of the Land" picks up six months later with the Monks having brainwashed most of humanity into believing them to have always been benevolent superiors. But despite their amazing powers they manage to miss [[spoiler: the Doctor's faked loyalty to them, his companion-assisted escape, and the resultant plan to undo them]] and put up ''very'' little of a fight against the good guys. The episode works to justify this by having a character who's dealt with the Monks explain that they don't think through ''holding on'' to their power once they have it, but that still after two episodes in which they were nigh-omnipotent and the Doctor legitimately had no hope of outwitting them.

* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'': Iron Man, Spider Man, Dr Strange, Nebula and the Guardians (minus Gamora, Rocket and Groot) concoct a plan to ambush Thanos that goes off without a hitch, almost succeeding in getting Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet off him (and the four stones it contains). Then Quill learns that [[spoiler:Gamora is dead]], and forgets all about getting the glove off Thanos, letting him get back to full power and wipe the floor with them, and leading [[spoiler:to his getting all six stones and instantly wiping out half the life in the universe. Including Quill]].

*** Not to mention the fact that Strange reveals in the ''opening cutscene'' that he knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman, but fails to use this as a way to stop Batman's advance. That he doesn't do it at ''any'' time is bad enough, but it's especially {{egregious}} in the climax, considering it's one of the few times Batman is taking direct action against Strange's plan, rather than dealing with a peripheral issue.

** Throughout the Cell Saga, Cell is TheChessmaster and a NoNonsenseNemesis who runs circles around the Z-Fighters and repeatedly outsmarts them since, as he's created from their DNA, he knows how they operate and think; he even manages to achieve his goal of attaining his Perfect form by exploiting Vegeta's ego and [[BloodKnight desire for a challenging fight]] to get Vegeta to help him do so. But after defeating Vegeta and Trunks in his Perfect form, he casts all this aside and lets his ego and pride overcome his common sense, setting up a fighting tournament just to test his skills and giving the Z-Fighters ten days to prepare and grow stronger just so he can have more fun fighting them. However, this is understandable given the nature of his character. What ''really'' cements him as this is when he discovers Gohan's [[PsychoactivePowers hidden power]] and goes everything he can to piss Gohan off so he can unleash said hidden power and receive a real challenge, just as [[BatmanGambit Goku intended]]; keep in mind that this is the ''exact same trick'' Cell used on Vegeta to get him to help Cell absorb Android 18, and then mocked him to his face for being so stupid as to go for it.
** FridgeBrilliance: He's got Vegetas' DNA within him, perhaps Cell inherited this 'want a real challenge above all reason' flaw from Vegeta?

** Throughout the Cell Saga, Cell is TheChessmaster and a NoNonsenseNemesis who runs circles around the Z-Fighters and repeatedly outsmarts them since, as he's created from their DNA, he knows how they operate and think; he even manages to achieve his goal of attaining his Perfect form by exploiting Vegeta's ego and [[BloodKnight desire for a challenging fight]] to get Vegeta to help him do so. The minute he becomes Perfect, he casts all this aside and lets his ego and pride overcome his common sense, setting up a fighting tournament just to test his skills and giving the Z-Fighters ten days to prepare and grow stronger just so he can have more fun fighting them. What ''really'' cements him as this is when he discovers Gohan's [[PsychoactivePowers hidden power]] and goes everything he can to piss Gohan off so he can unleash said hidden power and receive a real challenge, just as [[BatmanGambit Goku intended]]; keep in mind that this is the ''exact same trick'' Cell used on Vegeta to get him to help Cell absorb Android 18, and then mocked him to his face for being so stupid as to go for it.