History Main / TooCleverByHalf

* Assuming it happened as it was described, this trope is OlderThanFeudalism as it factors into the Battle of Megiddo in 1479 B.C.E. The battle pitted [[AncientEgypt New Kingdom Egypt]] under Thutmose III against [[TheResistance the Syrian/Canaanite rebels]] led by the King of Kadesh. When Thutmose's army advanced on Kadesh, they were faced with three options for reaching the city: to the north and south were the Yokneam and Taanach roads, while in the middle was the narrow Aruna Pass. The Aruna Pass road was significantly shorter, but required marching in a very thin and spread-out column, making any army moving through there dangerously vulnerable to attack from the front and from the heights. King Kadesh felt that Thutmose would reason that the Aruna Pass was too unsafe for this reason and would choose one of the two roads: therefore, he divided his forces to block both roads, reasoning that one division would slow the Egyptians while the other would come around and attack them from behind. Thutmose's generals also felt that the Aruna Pass was too dangerous and suggested he take his army on one of the road routes. However, Thutmose instead came to reason that Kadesh had thought him too smart to take the Aruna Pass, and so decided to use his game against him and took the pass route anyway despite the danger it put his army in. By the time the Syrian scouts returned to the King to tell him that the Egyptians had took the one route he had thought they wouldn't, it was too late and the Egyptian army was rapidly assembling outside of the city. The Syrian forces thus had to rush back to the city to defend it, and between their exhaustion and lack of training the Egyptians won a commanding victory outside of the city, with the King of Kadesh barely escaping back into his own city after the gates had shut by way of a rope up the city wall. The siege ultimately ended with Syrian surrender, and Thutmose's legacy as Pharaoh was cemented.

* Scar from ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing'' schemes to take the throne, believing himself to be [[BrainsVersusBrawn smarter than his brother, Mufasa]], and actually succeeds in doing so without anyone suspecting he played a role in Mufasa's death. The only real hole in Scar's plot, unbeknownst to him, is that the hyenas failed to kill Simba, but the young lion is still ashamed and runs away. However, after the TimeSkip, it becomes clear that while Scar is certainly a cunning ''schemer'', he puts no thought into being an actual ''ruler''. In a few years under [[TheCaligula his rule]], Pride Rock has fallen into ruin, the lions are running out of food, and even the hyenas who had been loyal to Scar, are about ready to revolt, [[spoiler:and eventually turn on him, literally ripping him to shreds after he tries to blame them for the coupe]]. It seems that Mufasa was much smarter than Scar gave him credit for.

** Andi Brand is an intelligent and driven woman who managed to build Alpha into a major company in just a few years with the help of Miles Bron. However, she has a blind spot when it comes to people, which allows Miles to steal the entire company when he turns the Disruptors against her. [[spoiler:Andi's last attempt to get what she's owed has her lure Miles to her house for a confrontation, expecting him to not retaliate because she thought he was too smart to do something as stupid as try to hurt her about a week after being part of a court struggle that made international news and would make him one of the primary suspects of the police through motive. Unfortunately, [[StupidEvil Miles is that stupid]], and last thing she knew she [[SlippingAMickey was drinking coffee he had drugged]] as step one of [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident faking her suicide]].]]

** Andi Brand is an intelligent and driven woman who managed to build Alpha into a major company in just a few years with the help of Miles Bron. However, she has a blind spot when it comes to people, which allows Miles to steal the entire company when he turns the Disruptors against her. [[spoiler:Andi's last attempt to get what she's owed has her lure Miles to her house for a confrontation, expecting him to not retaliate because she thought he was too smart to do something as stupid as try to hurt her about a week after being part of a court struggle that made international news and would make him one of the primary suspects of the police through motive. Unfortunately, [[StupidEvil Miles is that stupid]], and last thing she knew she [[SlippingAMickey was drinking coffee he had slipped poison in]].]]

** Benoit Blanc, even if he is a GrandDetective, also falls under this. It takes him a pretty long time to [[spoiler:put Miles as a primary suspect of Andi Brand's murder, let alone as the killer, because just like Andi he thought Miles was smarter than that. When he finally understands that Bron is that dumb and opportunistic, [[DisappointedByTheMotive Blanc is actually pissed]].]] Furthermore, the plan to investigate all of the suspects that he [[spoiler:and Andi's twin sister Helen]] perform is burdened by ComplexityAddiction.

* ''Film/GlassOnion'': Andi Brand is an intelligent and driven woman who managed to build Alpha into a major company in just a few years with the help of Miles Bron. However, she has a blind spot when it comes to people, which allows Miles to steal the entire company when he turns the Disruptors against her. [[spoiler:Andi's last attempt to get what she's owed has her lure Miles to her house for a confrontation, expecting him to not retaliate because she thought he was too smart to do something as stupid as try to hurt her about a week after being part of a court struggle that made international news and would make him one of the primary suspects of the police through motive. Unfortunately, [[StupidEvil Miles is that stupid]], and last thing she knew she [[SlippingAMickey was drinking coffee he had slipped poison in]].]]

* ''Film/GlassOnion'': Andi Brand is an intelligent and driven woman who managed to build Alpha into a major company in just a few years with the help of Miles Bron. However, she has a blind spot when it comes to people, which allows Miles to steal the entire company when he turns the Disruptors against her. [[spoiler:Andi's last attempt to get what she's owed has her lure Miles to her house for a confrontation, but is killed because she thought he was too smart to do something so stupid]].

* Scar from ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing'' schemes to take the throne, believing himself to be [[BrainsVersusBrawn smarter than his brother, Mufasa]], and actually succeeds in doing so without anyone suspecting he played a role in Mufasa's death. The only real hole in Scar's plot, unbeknownst to him, is that the hyenas failed to kill Simba, but the young lion is still ashamed and runs away. However, after the TimeSkip, it becomes clear that while Scar is certainly a cunning ''schemer'', he puts no thought into being an actual ''ruler''. In a few years under [[TheCaligula his rule]], Pride Rock has fallen into ruin, the lions are running out of food, and even the hyenas who had been loyal to Scar, are about ready to revolt, [[spoiler:and eventually turn on him, literally ripping him to shreds after he tries to throw them under the bus]]. It seems that Mufasa was much smarter than Scar gave him credit for.

* Scar from ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing'' believes himself to be [[BrainsVersusBrawn smarter that his brother, Mufasa]], and while he may have been cunning, and he does succeed in killing Mufasa and usurping the throne, Mufasa, it seems, had more wisdom than he realized. In a few years under his rule, Pride Rock had fallen into ruin, the lions are running out of food, and even the hyenas who had been loyal to Scar, were about ready to revolt, [[spoiler:and eventually turn on him, literally ripping him to shreds after he tries to throw them under the bus]].

** Celestia Ludenberg is the first to fall into this trap. She has an admittedly clever plan involving manipulating Hifumi to kill Kiyotaka and frame Hagakure, followed by killing Hifumi so he couldn't incriminate her and blaming ''that'' on Hagakure too, while positioning herself in the investigation to give herself an airtight alibi. Problem is, she seems to forget that she has to ''execute'' said plan, and once people start to notice her slipups, the complex plan makes her own role in the investigation look too artificial to be true. Additionally, making Hagakure the scapegoat wasn't quite a masterstroke either; him being TheDitz means he can't effectively defend himself, but also gets him cleared once it becomes clear that something fishy is going on, since everyone knows he's too stupid to put together a clearly complex plan.

** Vaarsuvius is the resident SquishyWizard and needs to be smart. Also, [[CantArgueWithElves V's an elf,]] so there's the arrogance. The [[spoiler:demonic contract]] plotline manages to skate on the very edge of the "spectacular failure" point without ''quite'' falling in. Later on, we find that [[spoiler:their "Familicide" spell killed even people who merely had black dragon blood in them, or anyone related to them, such as their parents. [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0843.html People whose only crime, as V puts it, was "falling in love with a mysterious scarlet-tressed stranger".]] Cue HeroicBSOD.]]
** Roy as well, at times; the below line is from when he crafted a very specific question that an Oracle [[MetaphoricallyTrue would not be able to weasel away from]], got an exact answer to that question, and therefore missed something ''very'' important that he'd honestly wanted to let him know:

** Also Nale. He may be smarter than Elan, but he's definitely not as smart as he thinks he is. For example, Nale had his [[SuccubiAndIncubi succubus]] FemmeFatale girlfriend disguise herself and send the party on a dangerous quest to recover star metal. He assumed that the star metal would have been recovered as "everyone" has known about its existence for a great deal of time. However, it ''hasn't'' been recovered, since it was an extraordinary valuable prize under the guard of an extremely powerful black dragon who just so happened to be on vacation at the time. After it is found, the only result is Roy, an enemy of Nale's, having the star metal used to forge an InfinityPlusOneSword. His intelligence has also led to a crippling case of ComplexityAddiction. Most of his plans are characterized by initial success, followed by everything falling apart when one of the far-too-many moving parts hits a snag. This ultimately leads to his death sometime later. [[spoiler:Having killed Minister Malack, right-hand man to General Tarquin, Nale's dad, [[EvilGloating he boasts]] [[ReminiscingAboutYourVictims about it]] [[WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied straight to his father's face]] -- in an exceptionally [[EvilIsPetty mean-spirited]] way to boot. He then rejects Tarquin's subsequent offer to reconcile and states outright that he doesn't want Tarquin's nepotism or pity. Tarquin, finally having had enough of his son's crap, proceeds to kill him, explaining that his (Tarquin's) nepotism and pity were the only things keeping Nale alive.]]

* Katharine Parker in ''Film/WorkingGirl'', a high-ranking businesswoman that speaks fluent German and views herself as a trailblazer for women in the business world, with [[InsufferableGenius a giant head to match.]] When it's discovered that she stole a brilliant idea from her equally intelligent secretary, she's promptly (and satisfyingly) fired and disgraced.
* Detective Kujan from ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'' condescendingly tells Verbal Kint, the prisoner he is interrogating, that Kujan is smarter than him, that Verbal is stupid, a cripple, weaker than the criminals he associated with, and that [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Verbal will not be free until he will tell Kujan exactly what he wants to know]]. And then TheEndingChangesEverything; [[spoiler:Verbal was ObfuscatingStupidity all along, subtly leading Kujan to focus on his story, fabricated from random objects around the interrogation room, instead of suspicions on Verbal himself]]. Kujan [[InspectorJavert being utterly obsessed]] [[spoiler:with catching Dean Keaton only [[FatalFlaw gave Kint a perfect angle for his swindle]], by turning Keaton into the FallGuy]].
* Mister Miyagi in ''Film/TheKarateKid'' is less arrogant than most examples of this trope. However, he still seems unable to resist opportunities to be clever, even when it goes counter to his goals. His WaxOnWaxOff teaching regimen in the first movie (or rather, his refusal to explain it) almost drove his student away. His impromptu bet at the bar in the second movie may have paid for Daniel's college, but also [[TooDumbToLive humiliated the man he was trying to talk out of a duel to the death with him]]. His "sweep" joke in the third movie drove Daniel straight into the arms of the EvilMentor when he needed support.

* Loki tends to follow a pattern in ''Film/{{Thor}}'' and ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'': he'll devise a clever plan, successfully manipulate everybody, have them where he wants them...and then he'll KickTheDog, giving the heroes the motivation they need to bring him down, while his [[JustBetweenYouAndMe gloating]] lets them figure out exactly what he's up to. He wised up in ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'', where his apparent schemes were really giving Thor the chance to save the day, while actually setting up his successful scheme of faking his death and take Odin's place without anyone suspecting a thing. Loki then fell to old habits by ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', putting on an [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade egotistical play]] which causes Thor to immediately figure what's going on.
* ''Film/ExMachina'':
** Nathan's undoing is his pride. [[spoiler:He needed to construct a scenario in which Ava would deceive and use Caleb to facilitate her escape, thus proving her sapience. His failing is that someone clever enough to be capable of assisting her, would also be clever enough to outwit him, and thus all his machinations fall apart because Caleb caught on to the game and played into it, which Nathan didn't figure out until it was too late]].
** This also applies to Caleb, [[spoiler:when he rightly guessed that Nathan was still able to observe him and Ava when the power outrages occurred, and put his plan to free Ava into motion before Nathan realized it was too late. What he didn't count on was Ava betraying him and leaving him locked up in the monitoring room. Meaning, while he saw through Nathan's gambit, he still fell for the DamselInDistress act that Ava was doing after all, though his feelings for her could be blamed for him trusting her, as love is known to cloud sound judgement]].
* ''Film/TheHungerGames'': [[spoiler:Foxface dies because, lacking the know-how to forage food from the forest for herself, she relies on stealth to observe and steal from other Tributes - meaning that she doesn't recognize nightlock berries and, assuming them to be safe because Peeta collected them, inadvertently poisons herself with them.]]
** While this is true for the book, [[spoiler:an early shot during the training sequence indicates that Foxface actually had a higher knowledge of the flora in the area than the other tributes. In fact, the addition of this shot carries the implication that she committed suicide rather than dying at the hands of, or killing, the other tributes. The fact that the Nightlock berries were out in the open had to have set off some warning bells as well, if she were clever enough to avoid the other tributes without being detected after all this time.]]
* ''Film/TheGodfather'' has an interesting discussion concerning this between recently ascended Don Michael and one of his few genuinely trusted supporters about who of his Caporegimes is most likely to betray him to the older, more experienced, and apparently more powerful Dons. They agree that betraying him is the smart thing to do and therefore they single out Capo Salvatore Tessio as the most likely turn-coat as he is smarter than Capo Peter Clemenza. What remains unspoken, however, is that he is still not smart enough to realise that Michael anticipates this, is planning the demise of his enemies as well, and will immediately recognise his treachery.

** Also Nale. He may be smarter than Elan, but he's definitely not as smart as he thinks he is. For example, Nale had his [[HornyDevils succubus]] FemmeFatale girlfriend disguise herself and send the party on a dangerous quest to recover star metal. He assumed that the star metal would have been recovered as "everyone" has known about its existence for a great deal of time. However, it ''hasn't'' been recovered, since it was an extraordinary valuable prize under the guard of an extremely powerful black dragon who just so happened to be on vacation at the time. After it is found, the only result is Roy, an enemy of Nale's, having the star metal used to forge an InfinityPlusOneSword. His intelligence has also led to a crippling case of ComplexityAddiction. Most of his plans are characterized by initial success, followed by everything falling apart when one of the far-too-many moving parts hits a snag. This ultimately leads to his death sometime later. [[spoiler:Having killed Minister Malack, right-hand man to General Tarquin, Nale's dad, [[EvilGloating he boasts]] [[ReminiscingAboutYourVictims about it]] [[WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied straight to his father's face]] -- in an exceptionally [[EvilIsPetty mean-spirited]] way to boot. He then rejects Tarquin's subsequent offer to reconcile and states outright that he doesn't want Tarquin's nepotism or pity. Tarquin, finally having had enough of his son's crap, proceeds to kill him, explaining that his (Tarquin's) nepotism and pity were the only things keeping Nale alive.]]

An unwillingness to heed the advice of others is a big part of this. After all, if you're convinced everyone else is dumber than you, then [[SimpleMindedWisdom how could they understand]] [[DumbassHasAPoint things that you don't?]]

An unwillingness to heed the advice of others is a big part of this. After all, if you're convinced everyone else is dumber than you, then [[SimplemindedWisdom how could they understand]] [[DumbassHasAPoint things that you don't?]]

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' has Manfred von Karma. He has a perfect trial record and manages to direct court, even pushing around the judge when he wants to. He anticipates everything that Phoenix can think of, including the idea that Phoenix might call a ''[[MakeTheDogTestify parrot]]'' to the witness stand, so he retrains the parrot in just one night to ''not'' say something that ''might'' be bad for von Karma's case. But, [[spoiler: his obsession with perfection led him to kill Gregory Edgeworth in a literally perfect crime: no one knew or could have found out that he did it. But his obsession with revenge demanded that he frame Miles Edgeworth for the death of his father, 15 years after the fact, which then ultimately culminated in von Karma getting caught for his otherwise perfect crime. And the kicker is that he would have gotten away with it if Maya hadn't managed to grab a single piece of evidence that von Karma was about to destroy.]]
** In the same game, [[spoiler:Damon Gant, Chief of Police, blackmailer and murderer]]. If he wasn't so obsessed with controlling people, he might never have been caught, but he just ''had'' to [[spoiler:let Phoenix "discover" the "perfect" evidence of Ema's supposed murder of Neil Marshall in order to make Lana confess to everything, never thinking that Phoenix would be able to use that same evidence to prove that Gant actually did it all]].

* Detective Kujan from ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'' condescendingly tells Verbal Kint, the prisoner he is interrogating, that Kujan is smarter than him, that Verbal is stupid, a cripple, weaker than the criminals he associated with, and that [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Verbal will not be free until he will tell Kujan exactly what he wants to know]]. And then TheEndingChangesEverything; [[spoiler:Verbal was ObfuscatingStupidity all along, subtly leading Kujan to focus on his story, fabricated from random objects around the interrogation room, instead of suspicions on Verbal himself]].

* Obsessive fandoms in general are often guilty of overthinking matters when it comes to various theories and FanWank-y explanations (e.g. A 50-page treatise, complete with diagrams and charts, on how both [[Franchise/StarWars Luke Skywalker]] and Film/{{TRON}} are, in fact, secretly clones of one another in a SharedUniverse because both are played by Creator/MarkHamill), and simultaneously underthinking them by not checking to see if the premise was sound to begin with (i.e. they were confusing Mark Hamill with Bruce Boxleitner ''the whole time'').

* Detective Kujan from ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'' condescendingly tells Verbal Kint, the prisoner he is interrogating, that Kujan is smarter than him, that Verbal is stupid, a cripple, weaker than the criminals he associated with, and that [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Verbal will not be free until he will tell Kujan exactly what he wants to know]]. And then TheEndingChangesEverything.

* Loki tends to follow a pattern in ''Film/{{Thor}}'' and ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'': he'll devise a clever plan, successfully manipulate everybody, have them where he wants them...and then he'll KickTheDog, giving the heroes the motivation they need to bring him down. He seems to have gotten smarter in ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld''.

** [[spoiler:While this is true for the book, an early shot during the training sequence indicates that Foxface actually had a higher knowledge of the flora in the area than the other tributes. In fact, the addition of this shot carries the implication that she committed suicide rather than dying at the hands of, or killing, the other tributes. The fact that the Nightlock berries were out in the open had to have set off some warning bells as well, if she were clever enough to avoid the other tributes without being detected after all this time.]]

* Kellen Moore and Dak Prescott were the Offensive Coordinator/Starting Quarterback combination of the 2021 Dallas Cowboys that led the team to easily winning the NFC East and clinching the 3rd Seed in the conference. Kellen Moore was often stated to be one of the hottest potential Head Coaching candidates coming out of that year and Dak Prescott had just been paid a boatload of money to be the franchise QB of the team. The scenario is the Wild Card game against the San Francisco 49ers. The Cowboys are down 6 with 14 seconds to go and no timeouts at the San Francisco 40 yard line. They need a Touchdown to tie or win the game (depending on a missed Extra Point). The normal strategy in this case would be to try and throw a quick "Out" or "Corner" Pattern to a Wide Receiver, who will break towards the sideline in the hopes of getting more yardage and running out of bounds to stop the clock. The 49ers understanding this, choose to put the entire secondary on the edges, allowing Dallas to do whatever they desired up the middle (though not in the endzone) but have no chance to get out of bounds to stop the clock. This left Dallas in a bind. They could take two "Hail Mary" attempts, but the chances of them succeeding are less than completing ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' without dying. They could try a quick pass but the chances of them completing the play and lining up to "spike the ball" (intentionally snapping the ball and throwing it into the ground forward for an incomplete pass to stop the clock) are basically zero.

** Celestia Ludenberg is the first to fall into this trap. She has an admittedly clever plan involving manipulating Hifumi to kill Kiyotaka and frame Hagakure, followed by killing Hifumi so he couldn't incriminate her and blaming ''that'' on Hagakure too, while positioning herself in the investigation to give herself an airtight alibi. Problem is, she seems to forget that she has to ''execute'' said plan, and once people start to notice her slipups, the complex plan makes her own role in the investigation look too artificial to be true.
** Kirumi in V3 is foiled ''because'' her cleanup job was too well done; nobody but the Ultimate Maid would be ''that'' thorough.

--->'''Oracle:''' Yes, you've certainly managed to cunningly outsmart yourself at the very least. [[note]]In this case, Roy asked which of the two Gates the villains would head to next and forgot about the third gate which was under the guard of an entire city. He didn't know that the enemy had amassed an army big enough to take that city.[[/note]]

* Obsessive fandoms in general are often guilty of overthinking matters when it comes to various theories and FanWank-y explanations (e.g. A 50-page treatise, complete with diagrams and charts, on how both [[Franchise/StarWars Luke Skywalker]] and Film/{{TRON}} are, in fact, secretly clones of one another in a SharedUniverse because both are played by Creator/MarkHamill), and simultaneously underthinking them by not checking to see if the premise was sound to begin with (i.e. They were confusing Mark Hamill with Bruce Boxleitner ''the whole time'').

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' has Manfred von Karma. He has a perfect trial record and manages to direct court, even pushing around the judge when he wants to. He anticipates everything that Phoenix can think of, including the idea that Phoenix might call a ''parrot'' to the witness stand, so he retrains the parrot in just one night to ''not'' say something that ''might'' be bad for von Karma's case. But, [[spoiler: his obsession with perfection led him to kill Gregory Edgeworth in a literally perfect crime: no one knew or could have found out that he did it. But his obsession with revenge demanded that he frame Miles Edgeworth for the death of his father, 15 years after the fact, which then ultimately culminated in von Karma getting caught for his otherwise perfect crime. And the kicker is that he would have gotten away with it if Maya hadn't managed to grab a single piece of evidence that von Karma was about to destroy.]]

* Detective Kujan from ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'' condescendingly tells Verbal Kint, the prisoner he is interrogating, that Kujan is smarter than him, that Verbal is stupid, a cripple, weaker than the criminals he associated with, and that [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Verbal will not be free until he will tell Kujan exactly wants he wants to know]]. And then TheEndingChangesEverything.

[[folder:Video Games]]
%% * Vicki Kawaguchi of ''VideoGame/BackyardSports''.
* Gale of Waterdeep in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' is an extremely intelligent and prodigious wizard (although currently missing most of his abilities, as the Mindflayer tadpole inside every member of the player's party has sapped everyone down to Level 1 at the beginning of the game). In fact, he is ''so'' good at magic that [[spoiler: he was able to access the part of the goddess of magic's power that was stolen in Karsus's Folly, in an attempt to return it to her...but not good enough to actually handle it. It essentially parasitized him, becoming a FantasticNuke that lives in his chest and requires him to feed it magical artifacts, lest it explode.]] However, while Gale does still think pretty highly of what magic skill he can still use, he's also bitterly aware of what a stupid and selfish move he made.
* [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII The Onion Knight]] in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy''. He's quite clever, and knows it (and will remind [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Terra]] about his intelligence at ''every turn''). You want a spectacular failure? How about causing [[spoiler:Terra to go out of control, let her get brainwashed, beat her up when you can't think of any other way out of it, and let her get kidnapped]]? His Destiny Odyssey is all bout him being knocked down a serious peg, and learning [[StrawVulcan to listen to his heart, not just his head]].
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has Mr. Robert Edwin House, President, CEO, and Sole Proprietor of New Vegas. He's a ProperlyParanoid genius owner of a MegaCorp who firmly believes DemocracyIsBad (not entirely untrue, considering the circumstances) and defended Las Vegas from nuclear attack to rebuild it to a point of glory, but is incredibly arrogant and refuses to believe that he could be wrong. He also thinks there's no question that he should be the sole [[InsistentTerminology autocrat]] of New Vegas. As a result, the very start of the game is a result of him getting blindsided by an underling, and he can and will get blindsided again by you if you decide to betray him. Nations can be predictable, but a single person with a really big stake in a matter even bigger than them, [[SpannerInTheWorks not so much]].
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' introduces Miranda Lawson: as she and her sister were DesignerBabies engineered by their megalomaniacal TrulySingleParent to be {{Born Winner}}s, InstantExpert TVGenius barely ''begins'' to describe her capabilities. Lawson drops in on Shepard's resurrection without any knowledge of the process and becomes the project's leader through sheer ability in less than a ''week''. Of course, being unfamiliar with failure, she never sees her mistakes coming: her statement that "any [[MindOverMatter Biotic]] could be a BarrierWarrior" turns out to be completely in error - it takes a PsychoPrototype or a CoolOldLady to do it - she gets an ally killed if her advice is followed. She is actually cursed with being ''aware'' of this trope, resulting in an ''inferiority'' complex - [[ItsAllMyFault she attributes all her successes to her father's design, and only takes credit for her failures]].
* In ''VideoGame/MegaManZX Advent'', [[BigBad Master Albert]] has ''plenty'' of reasons to be completely assured of himself. He's one of the smartest and most powerful men in the world as one of the Sage Trinity, he refined and created [[ArtifactOfDoom Model W]], and he spent ''200 years'' planning out his mad dream to become [[UltimateLifeForm the ultimate Mega Man]] and RestartTheWorld with multiple fail-safes, be it creating so many Model Ws that it wouldn't matter if the heroes managed to destroy several of them, factoring in the inevitable betrayal of his own mistreated CoDragons so that it would ''benefit'' him, and creating a "spare" Ultimate Mega Man [[spoiler:(Grey)]] with a backup system containing his plan, knowledge, and a weaker moveset of Model W [[spoiler:(Model A)]] in the event of his actual death so they would continue with it. Everything goes AllAccordingToPlan with him completing {{Ouroboros}}, and he even gloats in Grey's story [[spoiler:that the fact he's standing before him for the FinalBattle is proof his plan was destined to succeed.]] ...But despite it all, he's blinded to the fact that those very fail-safes gone rogue could legitimately put an end to him, and he pays for it with his life to even his own shock as he lies defeated despite wielding the power of a "god".
* Klug from ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' is so confident in his intelligence, he never really considers he's not infallible. Being caught with holes in his logic never fails to catch him off-guard, despite how much he denies it.
** In ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoFever'', he spends a little too long gloating and looking down on Amitie and Raffina instead of ''actually'' getting the missing Flying Cane and claiming the reward.
** Additionally, have we mentioned he's still carrying around a book that could, apparently, possess him at any moment? Which it does in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo7'' if we infer that from his Mega transformation? Let's take this small part from ''The Record of the Sealing'', an in-game book, just to show you what went wrong in ''[[VideoGame/PuyoPuyoFever2 Fever 2]]'':
--->You ''should not'' open this book near the 3 items [[IdiotBall I have written in the page before]]. The seal will be broken and there the [[OhCrap "evil soul" will...]] [[LostInTransmission (too smudged to read)]]
** On top of that, his wish in ''[[VideoGame/PuyoPuyo15thAnniversary 15th Anniversary]]'' got denied by being specific with his wording: He wished for his success to be published in a 15-page spread. He'll get it... ''if'' he achieves success.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': This is The Author/[[spoiler:Stanford Pine]]'s FatalFlaw summed up. He's very intelligent, but his insecurities, arrogance, and stubbornness cause a lot of problems, including [[spoiler:letting his twin brother be disowned over an accident, trusting someone who turned out to be the BigBad, pushing away his friend (which indirectly caused his insanity), disappearing for thirty years and later withholding critical information about Bill Cipher and The Rift from everyone except for Dipper]]. He gets better in the end, after realizing the damage he unintentionally caused.
* During a flashback on ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', Grampa Phil recounts how while serving in WWII, he was captured by a Nazi panzer brigade. The Nazi captain (Major!) decided that the bad meat Phil was carrying to a dumping ground was good because Phil warned the Nazis not to eat it in an absurdly long and one-sided IKnowYouKnowIKnow. As Phil's narration puts it;
-->'''Grampa Phil:''' That's when it hit me! I realized that if [[ObfuscatingStupidity I let him think he was smarter than me, I could make him do anything I wanted]].
* The title character of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' is an EvilGenius armed with advanced technology, but his [[InsufferableGenius massive ego]] and faulty programming prevent him from taking over Earth. For that matter, Dib is a ChildProdigy who is much better at investigating paranormal phenomena than the so-called experts... and absolutely terrible at convincing anyone with the resources to do anything about it of what he's found.
* In ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'', Teenage Tony Stark has many of the problems of his other incarnations (keeping secrets from his friends, arrogantly fiddling with technology he really shouldn't be, and some outright hypocrisy) with the problems of a super genius who's been home-schooled all his life and suffering from the loss of his only parent. For example, he creates a really good computer virus that devours data like a swarm of digital locusts but [[spoiler:unfortunately merges with a swarm of nano-machines to become the ''very'' hungry Technovore monster]]. When Tony screws up, he screws up phenomenally.
* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'':
** WesternAnimation/BugsBunny says "Sometimes I'm so smart it frightens me" after he tricks the giant in "Jack Wabbit and the Beanstalk" into a twenty-paces duel that makes the giant disappear into the horizon. Then the giant reappears on the other side. [[DidntThinkThisThrough The twenty paces were enough for him to circumnavigate all the way back.]]
** Wile E. Coyote as well when he's pitted against Bugs. Part of his problem is he overestimates his own intelligence while gravely underestimating Bugs', allowing Bugs to get the upper hand before he ever realizes it, combined with his problem in the Road Runner cartoons of falling for his own traps.
--->'''Wile E. Coyote:''' ''[at the start of WesternAnimation/OperationRabbit]'' Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Wile E. Coyote, "genius".\\
'''Wile E. Coyote:''' ''[at the end of the same cartoon]'' Allow me to introduce myself. My name is "mud". \\
'''Bugs Bunny:''' ''[[BreakingTheFourthWall [to the audience]]]'' And remember, "mud" spelled backwards is "dum".
* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic,'' Twilight Sparkle can fall into this trap. She has an innate desire to be perfect, falling into SuperOCD quite often. She was acknowledged by [[PhysicalGod Princess Celestia]] as having the most potential of any unicorn Celestia had ever met; even when outclassed, Twilight outsmarted Nightmare Moon and defeated Discord with ThePowerOfFriendship. Twilight has studied magic her whole life and is one of the most knowledgeable magic users in the world. However, Twilight is so terrified of failure that her perfectionism causes SanitySlippage whenever things start going pear-shaped, especially if she thinks it will cause Celestia to be disappointed with her.
** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E3LessonZero Lesson Zero]]", Twilight's perfectionism caused every bit as much chaos as one of the {{Big Bad}}s. She basically became the episode's VillainProtagonist, reaching the point where she accidentally caused a city-wide riot so as not to potentially fail before realizing how far she'd gone.
** Twilight also tripped herself up in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E20ItsAboutTime It's About Time]]", when she used a time travel spell to go back in time and warn herself not to worry, thus causing herself to worry to begin with.
* Happens in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/PJMasks'' where [[ChildProdigy Romeo]] [[MadScientist Mecanos']] latest scheme involved him replacing the text in all books across town with pictures of himself; [[SmallNameBigEgo thinking that he would be instantly recognized by the residents of the town for his genius.]] Unfortunately, due to the fact that he is a "Night Time Villain", and the only people that he interacts with on a regular basis are other Night Time Villains and the PJ Masks, '''nobody''' in town even knows who Romeo is. [[DidntThinkThisThrough Not helping matters is that he failed to leave some sort of caption behind in the books to list his name]], and ironically-enough: [[NeverLearnedToRead he doesn't even know how to read in the first place.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''' first "Treehouse of Horror", Kang and Kodos abduct them in their flying saucer to live in luxury. Lisa snoops around the ship and finds a book titled "How to Cook Humans". Offended at the notion, the aliens blow some [[SpaceX space-dust]] off the book's cover revealing the title to be "How to Cook for Humans". To which Lisa points out that there is still dust on the book, with the title now "How to Cook Forty Humans". Kang (or Kodos) then demonstrates that there is yet still more dust on the book's cover, finally revealing the book's full title "How to Cook for Forty Humans" (the Simpsons are gluttons).
-->'''Marge:''' Now you know what we mean when we say you're too smart for your own good?
%%* Digeri Dingo from ''WesternAnimation/TazMania''.%%
* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'': Nobody could say Amanda Waller is an incompetent warden... but at the end of "Terrors", TheAlcatraz falls under the control of the Light, there was an almost successful GreatEscape, and she is replaced with Dr. Hugo Strange, one of their agents.
[[/folder]]

* Happens in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/PJMasks'' where [[ChildProdigy Romeo]] [[MadScientist Mecanos']] latest scheme involved him replacing the text in all books across town with pictures of himself; [[SmallNameBigEgo thinking that he would be instantly recognized by the residents of the town for his genius.]] Unfortunately, due to the fact that he is a "Night Time Villain", and the only people that he interacts with on a regular basis are other Night Time Villains and the PJ Masks, '''nobody''' in town even knows who Romeo is. Not helping matters is that he failed to leave some sort of caption behind in the books to list his name, and ironically-enough; [[NeverLearnedToRead he doesn't even know how to read in the first place.]]