History PlayingWith / LawfulStupid

* '''Zig-Zagged''': Mason starts out as a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, though he has a few niggling issues that act as his BerserkButton[=s=]. These are [[FreudianExcuse well-explained]], though, and he ''knows'' they cloud his judgment and relies on others to help him keep a grip on his common sense. Unfortunately, his protégé Jason is a full-fledged KnightTemplar, and while Mason keeps Jason's Lawful Stupidity in check for a time, he succumbs to the MentorOccupationalHazard, after which Jason takes over the organization. Naturally, it gets worse.

* '''Averted''': Jason is a Lawful paladin who has common sense.
* '''Enforced''': "We need a rival for our LoveableRogue to butt heads with! Let's create a paladin with little common sense."

** Jason's superiors/deity make clear that this is ''not'' the kind of enforcer they want on their payroll.

** Jason is a KnightInShiningArmor who constantly adheres to the spirit of the law, rather than the letter. He won't arrest [[BigBad Emperor Evulz]] because of crimes he committed in other cities because law doesn't allow that, but when Evulz opens [[TotallyNotACriminalFront a shop]], Jason performs a thorough inspection and, on finding what looks like a setup for smuggling in illegal items into the shop that is being built, arrests Evulz at once.

** Jason is either a robot or was raised in a way that programmed the law into his head. He believes the law is the highest morality there is and that listening to it is the only way to keep order, which leads to some ... issues.

** Jason realizes that he is jaywalking [[FridgeLogic in the middle of the forest]], and promptly [[{{Seppuku}} deploys his sword to kill himself in a holy fire of justice]].
** The only people who are lawful are the ones who were already stupid. It would never occur to a stupid person to think to act outside the law in any way.
** In this universe, the numbers of scofflaws and criminals each exceed the number of law-abiders by a factor of at least two or three, so being lawful ''is'' stupid.
** This society [[AntiIntellectualism persecutes intellectuals]] and people with common sense to a degree that makes it so only being stupid is lawful.
* '''Zig-Zagged''': Mason starts out as a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, though he has a few niggling issues that act as his {{Berserk Button}}s. These are [[FreudianExcuse well-explained]], however, and he ''knows'' that they cloud his judgment and relies on others to help him keep a grip on his common sense. Unfortunately, his protégé Jason is a full-fledged KnightTemplar, and while Mason keeps Jason's Lawful Stupidity in check for a time, he succumbs to the MentorOccupationalHazard, after which Jason takes over the organization. Naturally, it gets worse.

* '''Lampshaded''': A StreetUrchin caught stealing bread sarcastically asks Jason upon being caught if he's gonna torture him for such a small crime.
* '''Invoked''': ...Which is exactly what Jason ends up doing to the StreetUrchin.
* '''Exploited''': The BigBad intentionally lures Jason's attention towards relatively minor infractions, serving to distract the good guys from his true intentions as well as make them [[HeroWithBadPublicity Heroes with Bad Publicity]] to make their lives more difficult.

** Jason became a paladin because he was ''sick'' of LawfulStupid paladins, and wanted to show them how they ''should'' be acting.

* '''Played for Drama''': [[ChekhovsGunman After the urchin grows up, he proceeds to]] frame everyone Jason loves and respects for equally small crimes, and make Jason aware of it so he's forced to torture them too. After Jason is left alone and confused, the urchin plays one final head game on Jason by crafting a scenario with such a terrible LogicBomb that Jason is finally forced to make a ZerothLawRebellion or go insane. Once he's finally free of his LawfulStupid way of thinking, the urchin wraps up the {{Tragedy}} by revealing the manipulation, and how Jason could have saved all his friends if he'd just been willing to think for himself.

* '''Plotted a Good Waste''': Jason [[RightWayWrongWayPair is the]] DeliberatelyBadExample DecoyProtagonist in ''The Wandering Paladin'' series, so the actual hero Peter [[ShowDontTell doesn't need to waste]] ''x'' words explaining how "good" Paladins are supposed to act.

Back to LawfulStupid. And don't even ''THINK'' about making even a single misspell, or putting in a single meme, if you don't want to get a perma-ban!

** Jason is a KnightInShiningArmor who constantly adheres to the spirit of the law, rather than the letter. He won't arrest Evulz because of crimes he committed in other cities because that isn't allowed by law, but when Evulz opens [[TotallyNotACriminalFront a shop]], Jason performs a thorough inspection and, on finding what looks like a setup for smuggling in illegal items into the shop that is being built, arrests Evulz at once.

** Jason is either a robot or he was raised in a way that programmed the law into his head. He believes the law is the highest morality there is and that listening to it is the only way to keep order which leads to some ... issues.

* '''Played for Drama''': After the urchin grows up, he proceeds to frame everyone Jason loves and respects for equally small crimes, and make Jason aware of it so he's forced to torture them too. After Jason is left alone and confused, the urchin plays one final head game on Jason by crafting a scenario with such a terrible LogicBomb that Jason is finally forced to make a ZerothLawRebellion or go insane. Once he's finally free of his LawfulStupid way of thinking, the urchin wraps up the {{Tragedy}} by revealing the manipulation, and how he could have saved all his friends if he'd just been willing to use his brain.
* '''Played for Horror''': Jason's bumbling and inflexible enforcement of the law [[LethallyStupid has a strange way of ending with many people dead, not all of them by his hand, but definitely by his fault]].

* '''Zig-Zagged''': Mason starts out as a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, though he has a few niggling issues that act as his {{Berserk Button}}s. These are [[FreudianExcuse well-explained]], however, and he ''knows'' that these cloud his judgment and relies on others to keep him from losing sight of his common sense. Unfortunately, his protégé Jason is a full-fledged KnightTemplar, and while Mason keeps Jason's Lawful Stupidity in check for a time, he succumbs to the MentorOccupationalHazard, after which Jason takes over the organization. Naturally, it gets worse.

* '''Deconstructed''': The KnightTemplar, which presents zealousness at the price of compassion as a villainous trait.
* '''Reconstructed''': As a result of [[NiceJobBreakingItHero something he did]], something bad happens, causing Jason to have a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment. He learns that having common sense is important, and stops being LawfulStupid.

* '''Plotted a Good Waste''': Jason [[RightWayWrongWayPair is the]] DeliberatelyBadExample DecoyProtagonist in ''The Wandering Paladin'' series, so the actual hero Peter [[ShowDontTell doesn't need to waste]] a thousand words explaining how "good" Paladins are supposed to act.

* '''Exaggerated''': Jason the paladin ''insists'' that he is a paragon of saintly virtue out to purify the hopelessly corrupt world and overreacts to anything he deems sinful, to the point of [[DisproportionateRetribution dragging people to jail for]] {{jaywalking|WillRuinYourLife}}.

** Jason is a KnightInShiningArmor who constantly adheres to the spirit of the law, rather than the letter. He won't arrest Evulz because of crimes he committed in other cities because that isn't covered by law, but when Evulz opens [[TotallyNotACriminalFront a shop]], Jason performs a thorough inspection and, on finding what looks like a setup for smuggling in illegal items into the shop that is being built, arrests Evulz at once.
** Most of the time, Jason balances his duty to uphold the law with [[KnowWhenToFoldEm understanding of when to let little problems go]]. But there are [[BerserkButton particular illegal acts]] that will turn off Jason's brain and make him do dumb things to avenge them.

** Jason becomes so obsessed with punishing the AntiHero Bob by lawful means that he does things showing EvilIsPetty.

* '''Played for Laughs''': Jason knows damn well how many times he has exceeded the speed limit, gotten a parking ticket, jaywalked, or committed every kind of minor violation of the law in the book, but he is still determined to punish himself despite being told by everyone he knows that he should really just relax.

Back to LawfulStupid. And don't even ''THINK'' about making even a single misspell, or putting in a single meme if you don't want to get a perma-ban!