History TooDumbToLive / ComicBooks

* The U.S. government (or, hell, the population in general), as portrayed in [[ComicBook/DarkReign recent]] MarvelComics. Yes, let's give NormanOsborn, a mass-murdering, barely contained psycho, his own private army and spy agency on our dime and let him be the one giving orders to all registered superheroes. Since he ended the ''SecretInvasion'', we can ignore every single detail of his past actions. Let's also let him have a team made up entirely of OTHER mass murdering barely contained psychos. Including a misogynistic serial killer, a cannibal serial killer, a feral berserker serial killer, a living god serial killer, and a pathologically depressed schizophrenic whose alternate personality is a serial killer. The US Government doesn't catch on until Osborn decides to [[RageAgainstTheHeavens invade Asgard]]. The President doesn't approve of his actions, but by that point, Osborn has too many resources and manpower to care.

* Let's not forget the literally short-lived X-Man Thunderbird. Here's the situation, the issue's big bad Count Nefaria is getting away in a plane, Thunderbird goes after him, in an effort to prove himself "Warrior of the Apache". So what does Thunderbird do? He punches through to the cockpit and starts ripping the plane apart. Despite Professor X, Banshee, and even Nefaria yelling at him to get off the plane before he kills them both, he keeps just keeps it up until, big surprise, it explodes, killing him. He doesn't even take Nefaria with him. The worst part is that during this Banshee even outright states that he himself could have taken the plane out and caught Nefaria without anybody getting killed. To dumb to live indeed.

* General "Thunderbolt" Ross can easily come off as this in TheIncredibleHulk. He [[BullyingADragon repeatedly chases after and harrasses]] a huge green or grey creature that has SuperStrength, NighInvulnerability and UnstoppableRage out the wazoo, even going so far as to [[InterruptedCooldownHug attack him whilst he's in the middle of getting a]] CooldownHug, invariably triggering a fresh batch of rage. He has even interfered with efforts to cure Bruce Banner of the Hulk, causing further distraction, and deliberately picked fights with him on some occasions. To be fair, in more recent times he's been noted as basically being insane, and has been called out on just how crazy and stupid his vendetta against a creature that could potentially sink the continent into the sea, and certainly squash him like a flea, is.
** The fact that the government basically keeps him on over several ''years'' of this, in-universe, could be taken to mean that they're just as dumb, casually sinking hundreds of millions of dollars (if not more) into ever more elaborate anti-Hulk robots, PowerArmour and other gadgets that invariably get broken the first time they go up against the Green Goliath. Doc Samson has [[LampshadeHanging pointed out]] that, for far less than Ross typically blows in a couple of months, they could [[BoringButPractical erect a system of orbital satellites to watch for Hulk and trigger evacuation warnings to any towns caught in his way when he appears]].

** Then there's Lester Dent in ''[[TheBatmanAdventures Gotham Adventures]]''. After he wins two million on a game show, Two-Face takes over the studio. A session of CallingTheOldManOut ensues on live television, but Lester keeps calling his (gun-wielding, supervillain) son a "punk" and whining that he's ruining his lucky day. When it's clear that Two-Face is going to flip the coin on whether to shoot him or not, he ''dares'' him to do it.

* In the ''[[StarWars Tales of the Jedi]]'' series, Exar Kun gave a powerful and ancient Sith ship to the traitorous Aleema with instructions on how to use its star-manipulating powers. Aleema lures a Republic task force into a star cluster and uses the ship's device to tear the core out of one of the stars and throw it at the enemies. It succeeds in killing them, but apparently Aleema knew little to nothing about how stars function and didn't see any danger in catastrophically disrupting the natural order of one. It goes supernova, triggering the rest of the stars in the cluster in a titanic explosion that kills Aleema--exactly as Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma wanted.

* PSA comics always have one-shot characters whose entire purpose is to do what the comic preaches against and ruin their lives.

** Joker: "There's nothing mere about that mortal."

* ''InfiniteCrisis'' - Joker comes to find out that BigBad Alexander Luthor didn't let him in because of his unpredictability. Of all the super villains Alex was gathering, he didn't let the Joker in. Joker is understandably pissed. Jump to the final issue, Alex planning to rebuild his power and his power base, only to be ambushed by the Joker and Lex Luthor. And as Alex is begging for mercy, he tells him flat out his one big mistake wasn't attacking Superman or killing Superboy or any of that. It was "not letting the Joker play."

-->'''Lex Luthor''': ''[as the Joker [[BoomHeadshot ventilates Alex's head]'' ''Now'' who's stupid?

* Lampshaded in ''{{Nightwing}}'' #150. One of Two-Face's {{mooks}} was standing right behind a guy Two-Face wanted to shoot. Two-Face points out that this isn't a good place to be, and the guy needs it explained to him: "I can't afford to lose any [[StarTrek red shirts]]." When the mook doesn't get the reference, Two-Face has had enough, declares him too dumb to live, and blows him away.

* Also, anyone who has ever teamed up with TheJoker and then asked, "He's just a clown with too much free time. What could he possibly do?"
* While we're in Gotham, any supervillain who has ever shown up in his city and though, "What threat could a [[BadassNormal mere]] [[TheBatman mortal]] pose to me?"

** And if your world's "heroes" are on the darker side of the [[SlidingScaleOfAntiheroes scale]], then you're even more of a moron, at least if you're up against TheCape you can be reasonably certain he'll hold back.

* Every single thug, crook and street punk in every comic book universe ever. In a world where guys in costumes rip tanks apart with their minds and/or bare hands, why do you think being a petty criminal is even remotely a good idea. If you have powers; fine, special weapons and training; they'll do in a pinch. But if you're not even a BadassNormal, and you decide to rob a convenience store a week after you saw your friendly neighbourhood superhero [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punch out an eldritch horror]], then quite frankly, you deserve to go to jail.
** And if your world's "heroes" are on the darker side of the [[SlidingScaleOfAntiheroes scale]], then you have even less of an excuse.

** And if your world's "heroes" are on the darker side of the [[SlidingScaleOfAntiheroes scale]], then youhave even less of an excuse.

* Every single thug, crook and street punk in every comic book universe ever. In a world where guys in costumes rip tanks apart with their minds and/or bare hands, why do you think being a petty criminal is even remotely a good idea. If you have powers; fine, special weapons and training; they'll do in a pinch. But if you're not even a BadassNormal, and you decide to rob a convenience store a week after you saw your friendly neighbourhood superhero [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punch out an eldritch horror]], then quite frankly, you deserve to go to jail.

* Every single thug, crook and street punk in every comic book universe ever. In a world where guys in costumes rip tanks apart with their minds and/or bare hands, why do you think being a petty criminal is even remotely a good idea. If you have powers; fine, special weapons and training; they'll do in a pinch. But if you're not even a BadassNormal, and you decide to rob a convenience store a week after you saw your friendly neighbourhood superhero [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthullhu punch out an eldritch horror]], then quite frankly, you deserve to go to jail.

* Although [[{{Superman}} Lex Luthor]] is a genius, even he has done jaw-droppingly stupid things. Everybody knows Superman is super-vulnerable to Kryptonite, right? So, why not wear a ring made of the stuff at all times, just in case? Well, as Mr. Luthor was reminded the hard way, it may not kill humans in minutes, but it is still ''a radioactive element'', as he already knew. Turns out wearing a radioactive rock on your hand gives you terminal cancer in the long run.

** It's supposed to be because the Guardians [[{{AlienNon-InterferenceClause}} don't directly interfere in anything.]] They tried that with the Manhunters and it didn't work out so well, which is why they give their powers to local mortals throughout the universe instead of doing everything themselves. Its still taken to the extreme here and later stories show the Guardians occasionally willing to get involved (at least some of them.) To be fair, it seems like no matter what they do, the writers make it backfire on them. Get involved, don't get involved, they will choose whichever is the wrong option and get a lecture from beings they are supposed to be vastly superior to.

* The US government (or, hell, the population in general), as portrayed in [[ComicBook/DarkReign recent]] MarvelComics. Yes, let's give NormanOsborn, a mass-murdering, barely contained psycho, his own private army and spy agency on our dime and let him be the one giving orders to all registered superheroes. Since he ended the ''SecretInvasion'', we can ignore every single detail of his past actions. Let's also let him have a team made up entirely of OTHER mass murdering barely contained psychos. Including a misogynistic serial killer, a cannibal serial killer, a feral berserker serial killer, a living god serial killer, and a pathologically depressed schizophrenic whose alternate personality is a serial killer. The US Government doesn't catch on until Osborn decides to [[RageAgainstTheHeavens invade Asgard]]. The President doesn't approve of his actions, but by that point, Osborn has too many resources and manpower to care.
* Though viciously mangled and missing a few limbs and eyes, a pair of skinhead thugs ([[ThoseWackyNazis The Zyklon-B Boys]]) managed to survive [[MuggingTheMonster an encounter with Deadshot and Catman]] in an issue of ''SecretSix''. However, a few weeks later one of the thugs sees Deadshot entering a club and decides it is time for revenge, following him until the rest of the gang can gather for the attack. Deadshot notices him and delivers ''another'' vicious beating, but again leaves him alive because he had made a promise not to kill anybody tonight (He was on a date). However, even though the thug has now lost a ''second'' eye, when the rest of the gang arrives they decide to ''still'' go after Deadshot. This same person has now beaten and ''mutilated'' their members on two separate occasions, and they ''still want to track him down''. At this point they are simply asking for it, and Deadshot's ''date'' kills the lot of them, explaining that ''she'' did not make any promises that night.

*** It should be telling that Ross's only argument to Doc Samson's suggestion is to protest what might happen if America's enemies took control of Hulk. Doc Samson, quite succinctly, points out that the best way to tick the Hulk off is to try and control him, which means that little problem would settle itself pretty quickly.

** Its supposed to be because the Guardians [[{{AlienNon-InterferenceClause}} don't directly interfere in anything.]] They tried that with the Manhunters and it didn't work out so well, which is why they give their powers to local mortals throughout the universe instead of doing everything themselves. Its still taken to the extreme here and later stories show the Guardians occasionally willing to get involved (at least some of them.) To be fair, it seems like no matter what they do, the writers make it backfire on them. Get involved, don't get involved, they will choose whichever is the wrong option and get a lecture from beings they are supposed to be vastly superior to.

* The non-mutant residents of the MU and use of the Sentinels. That trick never works, quoth the Squirrel, and their efforts to use them never get as close as the Moose, and they always backfire, even forgetting about 'Future Days'. The two biggest problems, always recurring, are the big tin cans being taken over by their target, or moving to take over themselves. Even the Human-sized ones left horrid devastation in their wake. This is somewhere in a realm beyond just carrying the IdiotBall.

*** It should be telling that Ross's only argument to Doc Samson's suggestion is to protest what might happen if America's enemies took control of Hulk. Doc Samson, quite succinctly, points out that the best way to tick the Hulk off is to try and control him, which means that little problem would settle itself pretty quickly.

* During an exceedingly DorkAge arc, Steel and his niece Natasha move to Jersey City, New Jersey, and it plays a bit like the 'Town Of Citysville' did for the PowerpuffGirls, only much darker and grittier, and the series has to end before they wise up and leave. In one sequence, a local ganger that Natasha has upset brutalizes, and it is implied, rapes her. He also warns her not to bring her uncle into this, or she will feel the wrath of his 'peeps'. He is actually murdered by Natasha's long-lost father, John Henry's brother, but let's review. This thug's 'peeps' include psychos with knives and guns. Steel, no slouch himself, has peeps known as THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA! Among Natasha's unofficial 'uncles' is this alien dude you might have heard of. Too Dumb To Live? Booster and Beetle could have taken out their whole gang while looking for a good pizza place. This thug was too dumb to leave his father's privates.

* During an exceedingly [[DorkAge]] arc, Steel and his niece Natasha move to Jersey City, New Jersey, and it plays a bit like the 'Town Of Citysville' did for the [[PowerpuffGirls]], only much darker and grittier, and the series has to end before they wise up and leave. In one sequence, a local ganger that Natasha has upset brutalizes, and it is implied, rapes her. He also warns her not to bring her uncle into this, or she will feel the wrath of his 'peeps'. He is actually murdered by Natasha's long-lost father, John Henry's brother, but let's review. This thug's 'peeps' include psychos with knives and guns. Steel, no slouch himself, has peeps known as THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA! Among Natasha's unofficial 'uncles' is this alien dude you might have heard of. Too Dumb To Live? Booster and Beetle could have taken out their whole gang while looking for a good pizza place. This thug was too dumb to leave his father's privates.

* ''TheBoys'' is set in an AlternateUniverse where {{Super Hero}}es exist, ([[BewareTheSuperman not that you'd]] [[NiceCharacterMeanActor want to meet one]]) and the MegaCorp that created and controls said "heroes" is looking to infiltrate and take over the US Government. The latest Vice President is a functionally retarded hand puppet for them, and when the political arrangement is being explained to the NaiveNewcomer, it gets mentioned that the corporation had wanted to use a member of the Bush family for this role, but [[GeorgeWBush the latest Bush son]] had [[TakeThat accidentally cut his own head off while playing with a chainsaw]]. GarthEnnis is rarely subtle about these things.

* Right, [[HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi Keiichi]] go into that creepy basement with self-confessed psychotic murderer. Nothing bad will happen. And after you survive that, feel free to go out in the [[IdiotBall dead of night to chat with her]].
* Many, if not all, of the characters in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' get at least one occasion where they act like this. However, this trope gets played to its actual conclusion in one late-manga story, which really makes it into MoodWhiplash. One character's father receives a scroll detailing a martial arts style which makes use of a lot of brute-force tricks, a bearhug attack explicitly stated to be capable of snapping a man in half. Kumon Senior intends to use these moves to revitalise his dojo, which is dilapidated to the point it's being held aloft only by a single, rotting pillar, but he decides to master this spine-shattering bearhug by '''practicing on the pillar'''. Naturally, when he succeeds in learning it, the whole house collapses on top of him, killing him.
** In the second movie, the monkey guy who uses his super-cool psychic attack of soul-crushing despair.....on [[AngstNuke Ryouga]]
* Poor Retasu Midorikawa. Her first appearance in ''Manga/TokyoMewMew'', she was a cool DarkMagicalGirl... for less than an episode, until she became [[GoodIsDumb too weak to fight the]] MonsterOfTheWeek. But as stressful as that would probably be, you still can't excuse her for ''[[HowDoIShotWeb forgetting her own powers]]'' when she falls into the ocean and panics. (Those powers? Water -- including ''breathing it''.)
* The premise of ''Anime/KageKaraMamoru'', in which a family has been secretly protected for ninjas for so long that they've lost the ability to survive normal life. The latest descendant, the female protagonist, therefore has a supernatural ability to walk blindly into trouble, and generally gets rescued before she even realizes what's happening.
* ''Literature/BludgeoningAngelDokuroChan'': Sakura is this way around Sabato, always offering her a hand even when she had tried to kill him just seconds prior or allowing her to seduce him in her attempts to kill him.
* Jun in ''Manga/DevilmanLady'' gets episode 1 going by encountering a strange woman (Asuka) stalking her. When Asuka comes to her door in the middle of the night, Jun, despite being afraid, unlocks her own door, willingly gets in a car with Asuka, lets Asuka drive her to a darkened area of the docks, and obediently walks into a deserted warehouse whereupon Asuka locks her in with a werewolf.
** Also in ''Manga/DevilmanLady'', [[spoiler:Jun's girlfriend Kazumi]] dies when she leaves her hiding place for no good reason whatsoever.
* The main character of ''Anime/KyogokuNatsuhikoKosetsuHyakuMonogatari'', Yamaoka Momosuke. He has a habit of blindly trusting and attaching himself to even ObviouslyEvil people, trying to sacrifice himself for others and jumping in to save people from sword-wielding maniacs without any other means to defend himself than yelling "Please calm down!" He'd probably have died at least once every episode if it wasn't for Mataichi's team always saving his ass.
* In the manga version of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' several members of the Amestris military give [[PsychoForHire Zolf J. Kimblee]] a Philosopher's Stone so he can test it to see how much more powerful he gets. Kimblee uses it to create massive destruction, upon his return they ask for it back, and Kimblee does what everyone who has spent 5 minutes with the man expects. He swallows the stone then kills the morons who gave arguably the most psychotic person in the series (only Envy is as close) a stone that upgrades his power. Maybe next time they should do some research on the guy they use for their experiment.
** Kimblee later suggests that he faked being sane in order to pass the State Alchemist exam. Perhaps everyone except the Homunculi and those in on their plan was fooled.
** Dietlinde Eckhart, the main villain of TheMovie. She invades Amestris on the mistaken belief that it's Shamballa, which it shares no similarities with, and doesn't even make sense. Shamballa is supposed to be located near Tibet, and Amestris is in another dimension. She then tries to take over the place when the Thule Society has only about 1,000 members while Amestris is a heavy militarized nation with a much larger army. Her army is crushed in about 15 minutes.
** Envy itself qualifies. It went on a huge rant about how it was the one who killed Roy Mustang's best friend, and almost hurt himself from laughing about it. Keep in mind, Envy went out of it's way to tell how it was also the one who started the Ishval War and how amusing it was to see such a huge battle over the death of one little girl that it killed. Envy finds himself [[KillItWithFire on fire about two seconds later]].
* Loly and Menoly from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' are two Arrancar {{Clingy Jealous Girl}}s who aren't happy to see their boss, Sosuke Aizen, bring a young woman from Earth, Orihime Inoue, as a part of his GambitRoulette. What do they do? Go torture the girl out of jealous, only to be mauled by their superior. Then, after [[spoiler:Orihime shows [[TheMessiah Messiah traits]] and revives/heals them out of pity]], what do they do? After a while, they try to kill Orihime ''again'' and then use her as a hostage ''in front of Ichigo and Ulquiorra''.
** Loly goes so far to claim that she's going to kill Yammy and Ulquiorra, two of the Espadas while she has no special combat ability of her own [[spoiler:even if she most likely didn't know about Yammy being Espada #0]].
** It doesn't help much that the only thing stopping her from being mauled ''AGAIN'' is the fact that Ulquiorra, of all people, was forcing Ichigo to continue the fight, saving them... for another ten seconds.
* Inverted in ''{{Literature/Baccano}}'' when Randy and Pezzo's stupidity leads to them becoming ''immortal.''
** Isaac and Miria, also Too Dumb To Die, as they'd probably fly under the radar of anyone who ''could'' kill them.
*** [[spoiler:Not that they'd be able to anyway; it takes them until they're walking around the modern-day world to realize they haven't aged in about 70 years, and are thus also immortals.]]
* Koukaji in the anime version of the first ''{{Manga/Saiyuki}}'' series. He had previously been beaten with an inch of his life by Son Goku with his power limiter removed, and in the finale, he decides to try and fight him on his own again, and nearly gets killed, again. Note that this wasn't in the manga.
* ''Anime/DeathNote''. The fiancée of the recently murdered F.B.I. agent figures out crucial information on the Kira case and then decides to trust [[AloneWithThePsycho Light]] with it after he's been acting creepy, following her around, and asking "HaveYouToldAnyoneElse?" Incidentally, she decides to trust Light because he reminds her of L, lampshading that the two are NotSoDifferent.
** Someone who uses the name of Kira to pad his own pockets, knowing that Kira is a vengeful god of justice without much sense of mercy. Demegawa? Can you say [[SubbingVersusDubbing "SAKUJO"/"DELETE?"]][[hottip:*:SAKUJO means something like 'eliminate' or 'erase'. It's the catchphrase of Mikami, the 4th Kira. [[NoIndoorVoice All caps are a must]].]]
* ''{{Manga/Tytania}}'': Duke Idris Tytania [[spoiler:betrays another member of the clan he was sent to rescue, and stands by to watch while the enemy destroys his ship, presumably killing everyone on board, including Idris's subordinate, Berthier, who ''thought'' he was in on Idris's plans. Berthier actually manages to get to an escape pod and survives, though he is permanently crippled. Then, although he is presumed dead and could easily just take off, ''he goes back to continue serving the guy that just double-crossed and tried to kill him.'']] Yeah. [[SarcasmMode That works out real well for him, as you'd expect.]]
* ''Anime/RaveMaster'': Main character Haru Glory's mother Sakura. When someone is telling your husband about how they're going to make him suffer by being alone, you don't run up to them and let them impale you.
* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': [[IdiotHero Protagonist Jaden/Judai]] nearly dooms the world by [[spoiler:handing over the key to a KillSat]], then expecting that Season's BigBad to not activate it until after defeating Jaden in a [[SeriousBusiness children's card game]] first. The fact that said BigBad didn't attempt to duel him first was a shock to many fans, as Saiou was the probably the first GenreSavvy villain in ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' history.
* ''Anime/BlackLagoon'': Chaka, not only the [[CompleteMonster biggest]] [[JerkAss asshole]] in the series, but also the [[WhatAnIdiot biggest dumbass]] as well.
** Thinking himself to be the baddest ass of them all, he obnoxiously hits on [[DarkActionGirl Revy]] in an attempt to get her to duel him, then [[KickTheDog beats the crap out]] of [[MoralityPet Rock]] in order to antagonise her enough to draw on him, until he gets dragged off by Yoshida. This, despite the fact that Rock and Revy are working for Hotel Moscow, whom his bosses are trying to conduct important negotiations with.
** He decides to take over the group by kidnapping [[YakuzaPrincess the heiress to the leadership of the clan]] with the help of a street gang, and holding her hostage in order to draw out Ginji, her [[KatanasAreJustBetter katana-wielding,]] {{Badass}} [[PapaWolf protector]], to kill him before selling the girl into sexual slavery Predictably, Ginji and Revy tear the {{Mooks}} apart, whilst Chaka exits, dragging Yukio with him (and loses her after Rock blindsides him with some cleaning fluid, a bowling pin, and a [[PrecisionFStrike "Fuck You!"]].
** Later, he comes across Revy again, and again tries to get her to draw, because clearly he can take the woman ''who just tore through his entire crew'' like they were nothing. He starts counting down from ten... and of course she doesn't wait, and instead drop-kicks him in the face and delivers a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, before luring him to a nearby pool... where Ginji is waiting for him to deliver an extremely nasty, but very, very KarmicDeath.
** The Neo Nazi who brags about how powerful his HandCannon is. As Revy reloads her guns. The expected follows.
** [[spoiler:Hansel. They made him too aggravated to think and he walked willingly into a trap.]]
** The climax of episode 2 relied on this.
* ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'': Ash Ketchum, during the Pokélantis debacle. He starts off by touching things on suspicious-looking pedestals and sets off a [[IndyEscape rolling boulder]] that would've killed the whole cast if Brandon didn't show up. Brandon chews him out for being an idiot. What's Ash do next to prove him wrong? Runs off on his own, touches more things that look very much like they shouldn't be touched, and subsequently gets [[DemonicPossession possessed]] by a dead king. [[SarcasmMode Brilliant]], [[WhatAnIdiot son]].
* The {{Red Shirt}}s from the battle against Teppelin in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. [[spoiler: Our leader has just obliterated himself against the mysterious shield surrounding our enemy's city? Quickly! More of us must ram into it so that his death will not be in vain!]]
* Ayase from ''Manga/OkaneGaNai'' has multiple examples:
** still trusts the cousin who sold him to pay off gambling debts
** after gaining a measure of freedom ''he goes back to his old house to get a photo album, intending to come right back!''
** after one of his so called "friends" tries to ''rape him'', follows him into an empty storage room after said friend tells him he's sorry
** gets a job at a ''club which basically acts as a brothel''.
* Every single government in ''Dragonaut: The Resonance''. One side commits several outright acts of war, which the other side ignores. The same government then kidnaps one of the dragons, which causes the hive mind of the dragon's homeworld to launch an attack which destroys an entire space station, and a battle which wrecks most of Mars. Who does ultimate blame get placed on? The rescue party. And in a separate incident, a clearly insane dragonaut attacks another dragonaut over a perceived slight at the spaceport. While a shuttle is launching. When he misses a shot, trashing part of the launch equipment (nearly getting all the other dragonauts killed, as they are in the shuttle), he blames his target for dodging. He doesn't even get reprimanded, let alone receive the court-martial that kind of action deserves.
* The torturer in ''{{Manga/Berserk}}''. Thinking that he has the upper hand because he locked the most dangerous enemies of his kingdom (aka the main characters) in a dungeon room, he proceeds to hang around to taunt them. When Guts slowly stands and asks in an unnervingly quiet and soft voice if he was responsible for [[spoiler:Griffith's mutilation]], the torturer pays no heed and proceeds to describe exactly how he tortured him over the past year, finishing by showing them his crowning jewel: [[spoiler:[[BerserkButton Griffith's severed tongue,]]]] worn as a necklace. His death is brutal, quick and horrifically painful. Worse, he brags how [[TemptingFate nothing they do will succeed]], because the door is three times thicker than any normal door. Too bad he never took Guts' [[{{BFS}} weapon of choice]] into account...
* ''Manga/DragonBall Z'':
** [=ChiChi=] does this a few times. One of note actually got her killed during the Buu Saga, where she walked up to Buu and slapped him while yelling at him for killing her oldest son. She gets turned into an egg and squished.
** [=Frieza=] has been sliced in half, near dead, and was given a sliver of Super Saiyan Goku's power to survive on as an act of mercy. And what does he do with it? He tries to use it to kill the Super Saiyan from behind, despite the fact that it most likely wouldn't have made a dent. Needless to say, it doesn't end well for the tyrant. [[IGotBetter He got better]]. [[spoiler: Only to get KilledOffForReal by Future Trunks.]]
** Babidi. He controlled [[EldritchAbomination Majjin Buu]] by [[BullyingADragon threatening to seal him up again]]. Needless to say, eventually Buu got fed up and killed him.
** Pretty much every Z-Fighter except Goku, particularly the human ones. While it may be somewhat justified by their Determinator natures, how many times do they have to be killed and/or nearly killed trying to fight the current villain only for Goku (possibly Gohan) to show up and beat the guy before they figure out it's probably better to not even bother. Heck, Future Trunks history (where Goku dies of a heart virus and all but 1 of the Z-Fighters are quickly killed by the next big villain) practically lampshades this fact.
* ''Anime/OokamiKakushi'' gives us Hiroshi. He's prone to things like staying in a car with someone making [[NoYay creepy advances on him,]] walking around town at night after witnessing a brutal murder, specifically walking around the areas another classmate warned him to stay away from, seeing nothing suspicious in being called up at night or being asked to go into an abandoned barn...
** Isuzu, for the most part, manages to make the right decisions to stay alive until episode eleven, wherein she sees the villain (whom we should add is [[AxCrazy highly unstable]] by this point in the story) walking through the forest. Instead of reporting it to the authorities, she decides it would be a better idea to follow them into the forest alone. While wearing bells tied to her wrist. Did we forget to mention this AxCrazy has ''a gun?''
* In ''CharsCounterattack'', the Earth Federation makes Char promise not to [[ColonyDrop drop any giant space rocks on them]]...and pays him off with a suitcase full of money and a giant space rock. Guess what happens next. No, seriously, guess.
* ''Manga/SailorMoon'': Because Usagi/Serena is such a klutz (as well as a crybaby), the other Sailor Senshi/Soldiers/Scouts, and even the two cats started pegging her as this (or at least that's what DIC's English version would like us to think...). However, this applies more to the anime than to the manga (especially the crybaby part).
* Run from ''Manga/AChannel''. In the first episode, she almost falls out of a third story window while waving to Tooru on ground level outside, and is only saved when Nagi and Yuuko grab her feet and pull her back in.
* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', there are a few characters that fit. Tamaki has a tendency of [[LeeroyJenkins rushing into things]], despite having no special combat talents, and survives most battles only by luckily ejecting from his knightmare as it blows up. Nina Einstein is this as well, during the incident at the lake hotel. Girl, if you're faced with an angry rebel of the island you forcibly conquered, don't call him the derogatory nickname that your homeland gave them!
** Suzaku is a subversion of this trope: he wants to change the government of Britannia from the inside by joining the military, even though it discriminates against his very people, including himself, and such a position involves putting down his own people to prove his loyalty. It's through [[TheFool sheer luck]] that he manages to make any progress. The subversion? He's doing it all to [[DeathSeeker fulfill a secret death wish]].
** Nunnally herself also counts. She is more in the right mind, and position, than Suzaku, as governess of Japan, not to mention the ability [[LivingLieDetector to detect lies]]. Not using the latter on Schneizel, who [[spoiler:lies to her about Lelouch and Pendragon being evacuated, and later [[UnwittingPawn uses her as a pawn in his latest plan]] with no aversion to abandoning her]]: big mistake.
** Ohgi [[LoveMakesYouDumb gets so caught up in his relationship with Villetta]] that he is responsible for several rash decisions which he walks away from through sheer PlotArmor, and is [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom chiefly responsible for]] [[spoiler:leading the other Black Knights to [[TheMutiny betray Lelouch]] after being fooled by both Schneizel and Villetta's testimonies]].
* A few cases from ''{{Anime/Mai-Hime}}''.
** Joseph Greer [[spoiler:fatally shoots Alyssa with Miyu nearby]], but does not run away immediately afterward, instead announcing his intentions for doing so. Within moments, [[spoiler:an enraged Miyu kills him]].
** During her confrontation with Shizuru, Haruka not only [[BerserkButton unnecessarily insults Natsuki]], but continues to insult Shizuru ''even as her Element is drawn'' rather than stop provoking her or run away as Yukino suggests, thus forcing Yukino to try to defend her, leading to [[spoiler: the destruction of Yukino's CHILD Diana, and Haruka's own death]].
** When Nao first encounters Shizuru while attacking Natsuki, she is easily defeated. In response, she kidnaps Natsuki again, this time ''for the express intention of luring Shizuru out''. To make matters worse, by this time, [[LoveMakesYouEvil Shizuru has gone insane from Natsuki's rejection]], and [[spoiler:not only destroys her CHILD Julia, but tries to finish off Nao before Natsuki intervenes]].
* [[MusicalAssassin Kanaria]] from ''Anime/RozenMaiden'' has some shades of this during the series, but it becomes blatant obvious during the final battle of the second season: [[spoiler:not only she is the cause of turning Suiseiseki's HeroicSacrifice in a SenselessSacrifice by going back to the battle field, she also is killed by Barasuishou after the strings of her violin snaps and she forgets that, since she has Suiseiseki's [[AnatomyOfTheSoul Roza Mystica]], she could use her GreenThumb powers]].
* Akko-chan, from ''{{Anime/Himitsu No Akko-Chan}}'', in the aptly named '_____' episode asks her [[LiteralGenie magic mirror]] to make her deaf and mute, thus, more empathic to the [[LongLostUncleAesop new deaf kid in her class]]. After realizing that [[FridgeBrilliance she just wished herself mute, and her magic mirror could only obey to spoken commands]], she spends the whole episode as a non-verbal deaf girl, moving from curiosity to [[{{Wangst}} deep rooted depression]]. Keeping her rationality until the realization of her newfound handicaps kicks in, she then starts acting in a completely unreasonable way, ranging from acting as she were completely uncapable of any kind of communication to running blindly in a dangerous, isolated place, knowing that, being unable to cry for help, she'd risk falling in a ravine and being left there to starve. Exactly what happens to her. On the top of it, the deaf boy "inspiring" her wish sees into her self-destructive ideas and manages to save her from certain death.
* The last Saitama team in ''Manga/InitialD'''s fourth season calls a bunch of gang-banger types to beat up Project D and neglects the fact that the gang-bangers are from the same region as Project D and thus likely to be fans and that the owner of the car they forced into a wreck during the practice runs (using a cheap trick of spilled oil) was the former boss of those same gang-bangers. The current boss was NOT amused at being made to look bad.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'' example: Luffy ''embodies'' this trope in the Alabasta arc. He makes it to where Crocodile is, a big casino with a lot of people in it, and starts yelling his head off for Crocodile to come out. Then he comes up to a fork in a hallway with a sign pointing left and right, the left saying "VIPs" and the right saying "Pirates". And guess which path Luffy takes? Well, he said in the Arlong arc that he didn't know how to lie.
** Played straight during his fight with Eneru: Eneru can read his mind, so he tries to fight back ''without thinking'' '''''AT ALL.''''' For a while, it works, but it gets so bad, he actually spaces out mid-fight!