History WhatAnIdiot / FireEmblem

** When Elusia declares war on Brodia, Morion decides to go into the battle headfirst. However, Diamant thinks that there‘a something fishy about this, and advises his dad to just stay put in Brodia and let him and the Alear handle this.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Morion to follow his son's advice, watch over Brodia, and let Diamant and Alear take things from there. After all, there are bandits and zombies everywhere and Morion's sons and some of Brodia's best warriors are off fighting a war. ''Somebody'' has to protect the country.\\ '''Or:''' If Morion ''really'' wants to go, he should at least travel alongside Alear for protection. After all, they're one of the most powerful beings in all of Elyos.\\

'''Instead''': [[BondVillainStupidity He sends her to jail]], where she meets up with the traders from the previous game, and ''Kurth''. NiceJobFixingItVillain

'''The Result:''' Randolph gets himself and all of his troops killed, the anti-Imperial forces score a major morale boost, and the war turns decisively against the Empire.
** '''Even Worse:''' In the Azure Moon route, Dimitri orders Randolph to be captured, and subjugates Randolph through mental torture by pointing out that he is just as much of a blood-hungry beast as Dimitri is, and that he will personally execute his soldiers one by one so that he can see him break. Byleth then mercifully kills him, but the damage that Dimitri caused upon him was already done.\\

'''Even Worse:''' In the Azure Moon route, Dimitri orders Randolph to be captured, and subjugates Randolph through mental torture by pointing out that he is just as much of a blood-hungry beast as Dimitri is, and that he will personally execute his soldiers one by one so that he can see him break. Byleth then mercifully kills him, but the damage that Dimitri caused upon him was already done.\\

'''Even Worse:''' In the Azure Moon route, Dimitri orders Randolph to be captured, and subjugates Randolph through mental torture by pointing out that he is just as much of a blood-hungry beast as Dimitri is, and that he will personally execute his soldiers one by one so that he can see him break. Byleth then mercifully kills him, but the damage that Dimitri caused upon him was already done.

** After [[spoiler:King Dimitri’s death at the Tailtean Plains]], Rhea has been chased back to Fhirdiad with the Imperial Army in high tail behind her. Edelgard is willing to let Rhea surrender, but she has one final stand against the Black Eagle Strike Force; [[spoiler:lit Fhirdiad on fire so they will burn inside]].\\

'''Instead''': They ''completely'' forget about Maribelle. And she ''never'' even hears about the expedition to catch up with the rest of the Shepherds (unlike Stahl, one of of the cavaliers, and Miriel, the mage, who were among the last to hear about this expedition).\\

** Prior to the beginning of the third level, Chapter 2: "Shepherds", the player character gets introduced to Chrom's millitia, The Shepherds. During that scene, Vaike goes "Can he/she do this?" and lets out a burp, which The Avatar character doesn't mind (and is rather amused)... but Maribelle, the local Troubadour (healer mounted on a horse), is so repulsed by Vaike and the Avatar that she leaves the Shepherds' Garrison room in a huff before even Chrom returns to deliver the news of the voluntary expedition to Regna Ferox to set up an alliance with them to counter the problems with Plegia and the zombie creatures called Risen.\\
'''You'd Expect''': That after Chrom delivered the news about the expedition to everybody in the room, Vaike, Lissa, Chrom himself, or one of the other Shepherds would go look for Maribelle, who left the room earlier in a huff, and tell her about the mission to Regna Ferox and invite her to join them. It's always good to have a backup healer in case there's the off-chance the main healer (Lissa) falls in battle on the way there. If they had a back-up healer, they wouldn't be expending vulneraries.\\

'''The Result''': Maribelle is left behind in Ylisse, and when Plegian troops attacked Themis, another area in Ylisse, she gets captured by the Plegians ''and'' falsely accused of being a spy, which gives Gangrel, the king of Plegia, who has been looking for [[PretextForWar excuses to start a war]], a ''very'' convenient excuse to start pointing his fingers at the Ylisseans, causing the Ylissean-Plegian War to start very quickly, which, in turn, [[spoiler:eventually leads to the kidnapping, and later, suicide [[labelnote:spoilers]]unless you play one of the Spot-Pass exclusive missions unlocked after clearing Chapter 25[[/labelnote]] of Emmeryn, the exalt of Ylisse]].

** [[RoyalBrat King Chagall]] himself counts, part of Eldigan's problem being underestimating his liege's stupidity. Eldigan has sworn an eternal oath of loyalty to the royal family, which Chagall is the last remaining heir of. Eldigan's loyalty is further proven when he saves Chagall from certain death despite Chagall imprisoning him moments before. As Chagall's forces fall, Eldigan and his men are the King's last line of defense, with Grannevale rapidly advancing. Eldigan advises Chagall to do a TacticalWithdrawal of the remaining troops and do a treaty with Grannevale in the hopes of reclaiming Agustria in the future after rebuilding their forces. \\

'''Instead:''' Chagall calls Eldigan's words traitor talk and immediately has his best soldier executed despite Eldigan saving his life. Chagall then [[SuicidalOverconfidence stupidly challenges Grannevale in battle]] and is unsurprisingly killed. Due to Chagall never taking the time to produce an heir, the Agustrian royal line dies with him, and the country falls into [[SuccessionCrisis crisis]] as a result.

** The evil mage Solon decides to drive a whole bunch of villagers berserk as part of an experiment. The Knights of Seiros naturally take offense to this, and send Byleth and their students to investigate. Solon confronts them...\\

'''You'd Expect:''' For Rhea or Seteh to investigate or apprehend the obvious impostor.\\

** On the Blue Lions route, Dimitri spends the second quarter of the game or so acting under the reasonable if circumstantial belief that the Flame Emperor was responsible for the Tragedy of Duscur four years prior. Eventually, he unmasks them and discovers that the Flame Emperor's true identity is [[spoiler:Edelgard von Hresvelg]].\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Dimitri to stop and think for five seconds, and realize that the odds of the Flame Emperor being involved are next to nil considering [[spoiler:she was a thirteen-year-old girl at the time]].\\
'''Instead:''' He continues to believe they were responsible, even after five years have passed. One wonders if his ''many'' mental issues damaged his logical reasoning skills until the wake-up call with [[spoiler: Rodrigue's death]].\\
'''You'd Also Expect:''' One of the others, who compared to [[AxCrazy Dimitri]] are of sounder mind, to point out the flaw in his logic and make him see that his vengeance quest against [[spoiler: Edelgard]] is a senseless endeavor, or is at least directed at the wrong person. It's established that Dimitri's obsessive hate is detrimental to the army due to the risks he's willing to take and the fact that many of [[TheFriendNobodyLikes the forces are put off by his behaviour]], and while they didn't know [[spoiler: her]] as personally as Dimitri did, they must have known that [[spoiler: Edelgard]] was at least around their age based on interactions with [[spoiler: her]] and [[spoiler: her]] housemates.\\
'''Instead:''' No one says anything and they all blindly follow Dimitri's whims, such as him having the army make a beeline for [[spoiler: Enbarr]] on what is essentially a {{suicide mission}} instead of recapturing Fhirdiad, saving their home and re-bolstering their forces for a better planned and equipped attack. While the player is given the option to suggest going to Fhirdiad first, Dimitri instantly shuts the idea down and everyone agrees.

** This one's a twofer. At the start of Chapter 13, the party meets with Validar to discuss Plegia offering support against Valm. Assisting Validar is the Hierophant, [[spoiler:(i.e. future Grima's vessel) who is a dead-ringer for the Avatar.]]
*** '''You'd Expect:''' The Hierophant would want to lay low and take advantage of the fact that [[spoiler:they look exactly like the Avatar]] to [[FalseFlagOperation sew discord]] and [[spoiler: cast doubt on the real Avatar's loyalty.]]
*** '''Instead:''' Validar casually trots the Hierophant out for all to see, blowing any chance of subterfuge for the apparent sake of saying [[spoiler:[[EvilIsPetty "nya-nya, I have an Avatar too, now!"]]]]
*** '''But wait, there's more!:''' At the end of the same chapter when [[spoiler: Lucina fully introduces herself and the concept of TimeTravel]], no one, including our alleged tactical genius, puts two-and-two together to deduce that [[spoiler:the "other Avatar" they just met is the future self of our Avatar, and that they are ''[[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight actively]]'' trying to bring about the BadFuture instead of it just [[YouCantFightFate somehow reasserting itself.]] As a result, while the Avatar does have an elaborate plan for dealing with Validar, they [[ChekhovsGunman don't take the Hierophant into account]] until it's too late to stop them from stepping in to awaken Grima after the present Avatar refuses to.]]

*** '''But wait, there's more!:''' At the end of the same chapter when [[spoiler: Lucina fully introduces herself and the concept of TimeTravel]], no one, including our alleged tactical genius, puts two-and-two together to deduce that [[spoiler:the "other Avatar" they just met is the future self of our Avatar, and that they are ''[[SetWrongWhatOnceWentRight actively]]'' trying to bring about the BadFuture instead of it just [[YouCantFightFate somehow reasserting itself.]] As a result, while the Avatar does have an elaborate plan for dealing with Validar, they [[ChekhovsGunman don't take the Hierophant into account]] until it's too late to stop them from stepping in to awaken Grima after the present Avatar refuses to.]]

'''Instead:''' No one says anything and they all blindly follow Dimitri's whims, such as him having the army make a beeline for [[spoiler: Enbarr]] on what is essentially a {{suicide mission}} instead of recapturing Fhirdiad, saving their home and re-bolstering their forces for a better planned and equipped attack. While the player is given the option to go to Fhirdiad first, Dimitri instantly shuts the idea down and everyone agrees.

*** '''But wait, there's more!:''' At the end of the same chapter when [[spoiler: Lucina fully introduces herself and the concept of TimeTravel]], no one, including our alleged tactical genius, puts two-and-two together to deduce that [[spoiler:the "other Avatar" they just met is the future self of our Avatar, and that they are ''[[SetWrongWhatOnceWentRight actively]]'' trying to bring about the BadFuture instead of it just [[YouCantFightFate somehow reasserting itself.]] As a result, while the Avatar does have an elaborate plan for dealing with Validar, they [[ChekovsGunman don't take the Hierophant into account]] until it's too late to stop them from stepping in to awaken Grima after the present Avatar refuses to.]]

*** '''But wait, there's more!:''' At the end of the same chapter when [[spoiler: Lucina fully introduces herself and the concept of TimeTravel]], no one, including our alleged tactical genius, puts two-and-two together to deduce that [[spoiler:the "other Avatar" they just met is the future self of our Avatar, and that they are ''[[SetWrongWhatOnceWentRight actively]]'' trying to bring about the BadFuture instead of it just [[YouCantFightFate somehow reasserting itself.]] As a result, the Hierophant is [[ChekhovsGunman pretty much forgotten about]] until it's time for them to step in to awaken Grima when the present Avatar refuses to.]]

'''Instead:''' No one says anything and they all blindly follow Dimitri's whims, such as him having the army make a beeline for [[spoiler: Enbarr]] on what is essentially a {{suicide mission}} instead of recapturing Fhirdiad, saving their home and re-bolstering their forces for a better planned and equipped attack. While the player is givent the option to go to Fhirdiad first, Dimitri instantly shuts the idea down and everyone agrees.

'''Instead:''' No one says anything and they all blindly follow Dimitri's whims, such as him having the army make a beeline for [[spoiler: Enbarr]] on what is essentially a {{suicide mission}} instead of recapturing Fhirdiad, saving their home and re-bolstering their forces for a better planned and equipped attack.

'''Instead:''' No one says anything and seem to follow Dimitri's whims, such as him having the army make a beeline for [[spoiler: Enbarr]] on what is essentially a {{suicide mission}} instead of recapturing Fhirdiad, saving their home and re-bolstering their forces for a better planned and equipped attack.

** [[RoyalBrat King Chagall]] himself counts, part of Eldigan's problem being underestimating his liege's stupidity. Eldigan has sworn an eternal oath of loyalty to the royal family of which Chagall is the last remaining heir of. Eldigan's loyalty is further proven when he saves Chagall from certain death despite Chagall imprisoning him moments before. As Chagall's forces fall, Eldigan and his men are the King's last line of defense, with Grannevale rapidly advancing. Eldigan advises Chagall to do a TacticalWithdrawal of the remaining troops and do a treaty with Grannevale in the hopes of reclaiming Agustria in the future after rebuilding their forces. \\

'''Instead:''' No one says anything and seem to follow Dimitri's whims, such as him having the army make a beeline for [[spoiler: Enbarr]] on what is essentially a suicide mission instead of recapturing Fhirdiad, saving their home and re-bolstering their forces for a better planned and equipped attack.

** In Azure Moon Chapter 17, [[TheEmpire Adrestian]], [[TheGoodKingdom Faerghus]], and [[TheAlliance Leicester]] forces march to Gronder Field to have a big battle. Claude, leader of Leicester, is primarily concerned with defeating Adrestia and has nothing to gain by picking a fight with Faerghus. Edelgard pulls [[HandWave some ill-explained trick]] to make it impossible for Claude to tell Adrestian forces from Faerghus forces.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Claude to hang back for a bit and scope things out, and make good and damn sure he only attacks Adrestia once he knows who's who.\\