Line #61 Main/ThirdActStupidity


1	This is when for most of a work, the hero or the villain has been reasonably smart in their actions. But if that character acts just as smart in the climax, it would be [[CurbStompBattle over in a minute]]. Time for this SubTrope of IdiotBall.
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3	For example, a cop protagonist has done just about everything with their partner, until it comes time to confront the murderer, and then the cop does it all alone.
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5	Or on the villain's side, this bad guy has been [[NoDelaysForTheWicked one step ahead of the police the whole time]], and whenever a cop gets close, that cop dies. But now it's the climax, so the villain does stupid things to drag this out (even if the villain [[TheBadGuyWins does come out on top]]).
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7	A VillainousBreakdown, HonorBeforeReason, and RevengeBeforeReason might be confused for this trope, but are not, as those are logical progressions of events in the story.
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9	Compare MonsterThreatExpiration, PrideBeforeAFall, ThirdActMisunderstanding, WhyDontYouJustShootHim and YouCantThwartStageOne.
10	----
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12	!!Examples:
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14	[[foldercontrol]]
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16	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
17	* ''Manga/DeathNote'': [[Characters/DeathNoteLightYagami Light Yagami]] starts out being CrazyPrepared and doing everything possible to preserve his secret, but as he starts buying into his own [[AGodAmI hype]], he starts viewing himself as invincible and stops being so careful. After the TimeSkip, he's gone from [[MemoryGambit erasing his own memory, trusting in the brilliance of his planning to ensure]] [[spoiler:L's death]] [[MemoryGambit while cementing his own complete innocence]]... to ''hiding the Death Note in storage and really hoping no one finds it while he's not looking.''
18	* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE'': Zeheart Galette seemed to get more and more stupid and crazy as the third generation went on, culminating in [[spoiler:ordering Fram Nara into a suicide attack that didn't work, and then killing some of his own men. He then took to a Mobile Suit battle in a blind rage and got killed in ten seconds, despite having both a machine and the piloting skills to make him a match for the main characters.]]
19	* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'':
20	** The Namek Saga is notable for the guerilla-style tactics that the heroes are required to use throughout: Krillin and Gohan are no match for most of Frieza's elite henchmen, [[Characters/DragonBallVegeta Vegeta]] is slightly higher up the power scale and ascends higher but is still forced to play it smart to outwit the godlike Frieza. By the end of the saga, Vegeta throws all this careful planning aside and stupidly goads Frieza into transforming, arrogantly believing that Frieza wouldn't get that much stronger; it costs him his life. Not that he had much choice at that point, since Frieza had cornered them and was going to kill everyone regardless, but goading Frieza into transforming faster instead of trying to delay him until Goku could get there to help wasn't exactly a smart move.
21	** Throughout the Cell Saga, [[Characters/DragonBallCell Cell]] is TheChessmaster and a NoNonsenseNemesis who runs circles around the Z-Fighters and repeatedly outsmarts them since, as he's created from their DNA, he knows how they operate and think; he even manages to achieve his goal of attaining his Perfect form by exploiting Vegeta's ego and [[BloodKnight desire for a challenging fight]] to get Vegeta to help him do so. But after defeating both Vegeta and Trunks in his Perfect form, he lets his ego and pride overcome his common sense, setting up a fighting tournament just to test his skills and giving the Z-Fighters ten days to prepare and grow stronger just so he can have more fun fighting them. However, this is somewhat understandable given the nature of the character. What ''really'' cements him as this is when he discovers Gohan's [[PsychoactivePowers hidden power]] and does everything he can to piss Gohan off so he can unleash said hidden power and receive a real challenge, just as [[BatmanGambit Goku intended]]. Keep in mind that this is the ''exact same trick'' Cell used on Vegeta to get him to help Cell absorb Android 18, and then mocked him to his face for being so stupid as to go for it. Later, in his frustration, he does the exact same thing he mocked ''Trunks'' for earlier: [[HulkingOut buffing up his muscles to crush his opponent with raw power]], [[MightyGlacier at the expense of his speed]], meaning he's now completely unable to land any hits on his opponent and gets defeated that much faster as a result. Cell's forced to resort to a SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum just to try and [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled force a draw]], and he [[AchievementsInIgnorance had no idea]] that he has the power to return FromASingleCell and CameBackStrong when Goku manages to prevent that [[HeroicSacrifice at the cost of his own life]].
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24	[[folder:Comic Books]]
25	* ''Recap/TintinKingOttokarsSceptre'': After narrowly preventing the sceptre's thief from [[RunForTheBorder crossing the border to Borduria]], Tintin, having not eaten in two days, notices an apparent farm on the other side of the border and succumbs to the temptation of crossing it, still carrying the sceptre.
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28	[[folder:Fan Works]]
29	* In ''Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'', [[ArcVillain Megadox]] of the eighth season is very effective, doing more damage to civilians than most bad guys and [[spoiler:hacks the heroes' mainframe and makes sure to erase the files needed to stop him. By all means, he won.]] However, this victory goes to his head. He not just refuses to finish off [[ArchEnemy the Surfer]] and [[KidHero the Data Squad]], he also [[spoiler:betrays the hacker that's his only ally and remaining person who is a threat to him, and doesn't check if the programs that enable the heroes to stop him have backups.]]
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32	[[folder:Films — Animated]]
33	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'', Hades has managed to get Hercules to agree to give up his super-strength in exchange for Megara's survival and safety. So, what does Hades then do? While he's taking over Mount Olympus, he sends a giant Cyclops to attack Hercules, who will likely be with [[LoveInterest Megara]], thus making it highly likely that she will be harmed in the crossfire. Granted, he did reveal some awful truths about her which likely broke them up, but it is still a risk not worth taking. And since the deal is immediately nullified if she's harmed, he has effectively ensured that his plan will fail.
34	** However, it goes even deeper. If Hades had sent ''any'' of the other four titans, who are always shown going for quick kills, then Hercules would likely have died before Phil came back to inspire him. Even if they didn't, a lava monster, for instance, would have been harder to kill through [[GuileHero guile]].
35	* This happens in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheWitchsGhost''. The gang go to help a man named Ben Ravencroft clear his ancestor's name because she was accused of being a witch. Once they find her book, he reveals that she was one. As he tells them that he's going to release her from the book, get magic powers, and basically destroy all, they give him the "You won't get away with this" speech and wait for him to summon his powers. Of course, they're not going to tackle him before he reads the book aloud, otherwise the movie would be over.
36	* Sakharine of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin2011'' is a very smart villain, preparing for many different disasters, keeping enemies alive only when their information is needed, being careful to not commit open robberies of the {{MacGuffin}}s, and pulling a ISurrenderSuckers on the good guys. Then when threatening to destroy the treasure map, he chooses to monologue at length about how the heroes have failed to beat him, buying enough time for Tintin to sneak around and steal it from him.
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39	[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
40	* ''Film/TheBirds'' features a scene where the protagonists are safely boarded inside the house. The birds attack but can't get in. Melanie inexplicably decides to wander upstairs. In doing so she finds a room that the birds have gotten into and attack her. Creator/TippiHedren even asked the director what her motivation would be to walk up the stairs, and he simply replied [[MoneyDearBoy "your salary"]].
41	* Near the end of ''Film/RedDawn1984'', Jed gets the drop on Colonel Strelnikov by sneaking up behind him. But instead of just shooting him, he first announces his presence with the line "You lose". This gives Strelnikov enough time to open fire on Jed before he dies, inflicting critical injuries.
42	* The original ending of ''Film/APerfectMurder'' (the remake of ''Film/DialMForMurder'') was an aversion of this. [[spoiler:The wife shoots her husband for trying to have her killed, and fakes a struggle. Since she had evidence he planned to have her killed, the police shrug it off, and she actually commits the perfect murder.]] But it was decided that the audience couldn't morally identify with her, and then we had the wife doing this trope.
43	* ''Film/OnceUponATimeInMexico'': The FemmeFatale spots her ex-boyfriend wounded in the street from a distance; the sensible thing to do would be to snipe him, as she was perfectly capable. But instead she goes down to talk to him, so that they could have a dramatic final exchange and [[spoiler:so that Sands could shoot her]].
44	* None of the characters in ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'' make intelligent decisions in the third act, leading to [[spoiler:the villain getting the MacGuffin and the LoveInterest dying]] (although critics felt it didn't hurt the overall film).
45	* The movie ''Film/Underworld2003'' when the BigBad has rendered the hero completely helpless and has him on the floor at his feet... but then walks away to deal with another problem. The hero of course recovers and saves the day.
46	** Of course, the Hero is the spitting image of his dead daughter — a daughter he'd already been mortified by having to kill before. It was possible he wasn't able to bring himself to deliver the killing strike this time.
47	* In ''Film/DraftDay'', the Cleveland general manager (Creator/KevinCostner) is tricked into an epically bad trade by the Seattle GM. That level of stupidity happens about once every 20 years. The movie is about Costner dealing with the fallout amid team politics, etc. Then, in Act Three he manages to pull off two even more unlikely trades - one against the now-suddenly stupid Seattle GM.
48	* ''Film/CampNowhere'': After having spent the entire movie managing to keep their fake summer camp from being discovered, and after spending most of Parents' Day fooling the parents, the kids start celebrating their victory ''before'' the last group of parents has left. Had the kids paid ANY attention to their security monitors, they would have noticed debt collector Polk at the front gate. [[spoiler:Things then go FromBadToWorse when Polk runs into Mud's dad, as it eventually leads to the ruse being uncovered.]]
49	* ''Film/VantagePoint'': [[spoiler:Veronica]], who has killed or helped kill dozens of people, including children, ruins the terrorists' plan because she can't run over a little girl. At this point the terrorists had succeeded at everything. All they had to do was literally drive away in triumph.
50	* Hans Landa in ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'' is made out to be a smart mind, but in the final chapter he decides to trust his opponents' words and delivers himself to them without a backup plan, thinking that Aldo's Nazi hunter persona is just an act meant to intimidate them instead of him really being that way, which results in his fellow Nazi accompanying him getting killed and him being branded with one of the Basterds' trademark swastikas being carved onto his forehead.
51	* Early in ''Film/SawI'', Adam tries to get a tape recorder that's far out of reach, to which Lawrence suggests using his shirt to snag it, with successful results. When the climax begins, Lawrence is trying to reach a phone just inches away so he can contact his wife; he takes off his shirt and uses it as a tourniquet [[spoiler:while he saws off his shackled foot to free himself]]. Apparently, both characters completely forgot Lawrence's earlier suggestion by this point.
52	* This ends up getting PlayedForDrama in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' courtesy of Thor. Thanos, having spent the entire movie searching for the Infinity Stones, finally gets his hands on all of them. He's prepared to cull half the universe until Thor drives Stormbreaker right into his chest, driven fully by vengeance over the slaughter of his people... and it's during those few moments that [[spoiler:Thanos snaps his fingers.]]
53	-->'''Thanos''': You should have [[spoiler:gone for the head...]]
54	* ''Film/TheEnemyBelow''. Throughout almost the entire film, the German U-boat captain acts in a professional and competent manner. Just before the end, he makes several blatant mistakes (that no officer of his experience should have made) because the script needs him to do so.
55	** The German U-boat captain falls for one of the oldest tricks in the book - the American ship pretending that after being torpedoed, it's helpless and can't move or attack - and decides to surface. Under the laws of war, the American captain would have been completely justified in immediately opening fire on the U-boat with his deck guns and trying to ram it. The American captain even lampshades how stupid the U-boat captain's action is: "I'm half surprised he took the bait. That's the first foolish thing he's done."
56	** After warning the American ship that he would fire a second torpedo in ten minutes, the U-boat captain decides to wait ''on the surface'' for the entire ten minutes. Unfortunately, the American ship is still capable of movement and manages to ram the U-boat, leading to their mutual sinking. If the U-boat captain had just submerged after giving the American ship the warning and fired the torpedo while underwater, he could have avoided this.
57	** The U-boat captain had to know that other American warships were on the way. By sticking around, even for only ten minutes, he took the risk that American ships could arrive, detect him, and continue the attack upon his vessel. If he had to make sure of the American ship's sinking, he should have fired the second torpedo immediately. If he couldn't ethically do that, he could have just slipped away quietly and continued on his way.
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60	[[folder:Literature]]
61	* Double-subverted in ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'': Artemis specifically refers to the "third stage of operations" as the time ''not'' to get careless, and of course things go wrong anyway.
62	* Thrawn in his Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse trilogy. The author has openly admitted that he couldn't think of any way, realistically, for the good guys to win against the relatively intelligent and cautious master strategist, and that he had to take up the IdiotBall for the last few chapters to give the story its happy ending.
63	* ''[[Literature/GentlemanBastard The Lies Of Locke Lamora]]'' has a case of this when Locke and Jean take on [[spoiler:the Falconer, who can use magic to control people whose true name he knows. The Falconer realizes that "Lamora" is a fake name, but it never occurs to him that "Locke" is also assumed, which of course it is. Without any part of Locke's true name, the Falconer's spell fails, allowing Lock to overpower him]].
64	* In the novel ''Literature/SomeKindOfHero'', the main character spends the entire book telling everyone how dangerous her supervillain ex-boyfriend is and how under ''no'' circumstances should they touch him, even for a moment, since his superpower is to manipulate the powers of anyone he's touching, including in ways that are lethal, like removing RequiredSecondaryPowers. At the end of the book, he's finally arrested and being sent to prison for his crimes when he asks if she'll give him a goodbye kiss. She inexplicably obliges, and he [[BroughtDownToNormal steals all her powers]].
65	* ''Literature/{{Congo}}'': At the beginning, the reader is told about Karen Ross's psych profile, specifically that when she's on the verge of success she gets overconfident and makes stupid decisions. Sure enough, at the end, [[spoiler:she sets off explosive charges to survey the lost city that lead to a volcanic eruption and destroy everything.]]
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68	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
69	* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': In the third-season episode [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS3E10Maveth "Maveth"]], the current head of [[AncientConspiracy Hydra]] is holding [[BadassBookworm Simmons]] hostage while her partner, Fitz, is off performing a dangerous mission on his behalf. At one point, Simmons overhears the evil scientists making a mistake in their calculations and corrects them, stating explicitly that she helped only to ensure Fitz's safe return. Instead of using this leverage to his advantage, the evil mastermind, who has for decades orchestrated an elaborate plot leading up to this very moment, informs Simmons that he has [[Main/YouHaveNoChanceToSurvive no intention of letting Fitz return alive]], thus eliminating any incentive for her to cooperate with him.
70	* ''Series/{{Charmed\|1998}}'': Zankou, S7's Big Bad, is smart enough to come up with cold-blooded torture that weakens the sisters' confidence enough so he can steal the Book of Shadows. However, in the finale his IQ seems to plummet and the sisters manage to goad him into doing something stupid so they can attack him. It was a shame because he was one of the few worthy opponents they had up to that point.
71	* Part of the fun of ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' was [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zagging this]]. He seems like a fool, and even seems to fall into this, but it's all [[ObfuscatingStupidity an act]]. The irony is his act is an attempt to invoke this trope, seeming careless, stupid and oblivious so his enemies will slip up and Columbo can nail them.
72	* In the ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "Our Darkest Hour", the detective helping the team on the case, Matt Spicer, forgets protocol at the end of the episode, [[spoiler:leading him and Morgan into Spicer's house without waiting for backup, allowing the Unsub to trap them, kill Spicer, incapacitate Morgan, and kidnap Spicer's youngest daughter]]. It's justified in that Spicer was dealing with an issue in his family, [[spoiler:which the Unsub had targeted once before and killed everyone except for him]].
73	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
74	** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainofMorbius "The Brain of Morbius"]], the Doctor defeats and captures Morbius by the middle of the last episode, deciding to remove his brain and return it to the Time Lords. It's fairly logical for him to threaten Solon, the MadScientist responsible for giving Morbius his new body, into doing the job for him. It's less logical for him to leave Solon alone to do the job and go and check on Sarah in a room with a lock on the door. To the surprise of no-one but him, Solon locks them in and revives Morbius.
75	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]]: The BigBad tells the Master in the most insulting terms that the moment his plan (which the Master is an essential part of) succeeds, the Master [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness will be killed]]. While the Master is standing next to the machine that forms another essential part of the plan. He also passes up numerous opportunities to [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim shoot the Doctor]] despite having previously shown a willingness to kill people for disagreeing with him; and the Doctor ''isn't'' part of his plan. (Admittedly, said villain is the ''definition'' of arrogant...)
76	** The Monks trilogy of Series 10 technically has Third ''Episode'' Stupidity. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E6Extremis "Extremis"]] establishes them as all-seeing, RealityWarper villains planning for every possible contingency in their plan to conquer Earth, which pays off for them in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E7ThePyramidAtTheEndOfTheWorld "The Pyramid at the End of the World"]]. They show up at a point where humanity is doomed to be wiped out — unless they give up their freedom to the Monks — '''and''' the Doctor is in a vulnerable state due to [[spoiler:blindness that he won't admit to others]]. The Doctor stops the crisis '''but''' ends up endangered, [[spoiler:and his companion Bill sells out humanity to save him in hopes he can save the day again]]! With that, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E8TheLieOfTheLand "The Lie of the Land"]] picks up six months later with the Monks having brainwashed most of humanity into believing them to have always been benevolent superiors. But despite their amazing powers they manage to miss [[spoiler:the Doctor's faked loyalty to them, his companion-assisted escape, and the resulting plan to undo them]], and put up ''very'' little of a fight against the good guys, with only a few tertiary characters perishing. Once their hold over humanity is broken, they... leave. The episode works to justify this by having a character who's previously dealt with the Monks explain that they don't think through ''holding on'' to their power once they have it, but that still comes after two episodes in which they were nigh-omnipotent and the Doctor legitimately had no hope of outwitting them.
77	* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': In "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS8E3TheLongNight The Long Night]]", the Night King feels the need to personally assassinate Bran Stark, despite the fact that [[KeystoneArmy his death will destroy all other undead]] and there being no stated reason as to why he specifically needs to kill Bran. It's even acknowledged by the heroes that there's no way they can defeat the army of the dead in a straight-up battle and their only chance is to kill the Night King before they are overrun. Had he just stayed off the field and let his minions deal with Bran, or at least waited until the battle was over to do it himself, he would have won. And it's not like he even needs to worry about Bran escaping, since Bran is paralyzed from the waist down and can barely move, and the Night King had previously put a mark on him that lets him always know where Bran is. But despite all that, for no clearly explained reason, he still insists on showing up in the middle of the battle, giving the heroes their InstantWinCondition.
78	* Harmon Rab and Sarah Mackenzie of ''Series/{{JAG}}'' are often guilty of this. When it came time for the episode climax, they often confronted the bad guy alone. They are partners yet seem to forget that when it comes to ''one of the very reasons law enforcement has a partner system''. Especially since they are lawyers and not Series/{{NCIS}} agents. Mac was a Marine, and a badass one at that, but still.
79	* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E12TheEmpath The Empath]]". Once Kirk, Spock and Gem reach the Vians' lab and [=McCoy=] is released from his restraints, Kirk and Spock stand around for quite a while talking about [=McCoy=]'s imminent death and other things. Either Kirk should have ordered Spock to use the Vians' device to transport all four of them to the Enterprise so [=McCoy=] could get emergency medical attention in sickbay, or (since Spock is more intelligent than Kirk), Spock should either have done so on his own or at least suggested to Kirk that they do so. If Spock had tried and failed, that would have been acceptable since he had already suggested it could happen. Of course, if they had tried to do so, either the device would have failed or the Vians would have shown up to stop the attempt, but for them both to not even try to do so was extremely foolish and thoughtless.
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82	[[folder:Video Games]]
83	* This happens every now and then in the ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries''.
84	** Hugo Strange in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity''
85	*** He spends most of the game and the prequel comics matching wits with Batman, who has a lot of trouble genuinely messing with his plans because Strange has studied him so thoroughly. In the last third of the game, [[spoiler:Strange takes a hostage over a video screen, forcing Batman to stay still while he lectures him and his goons fill the room. Instead of forcing Batman to not fight back for the sake of the hostage, Strange just lets him go, allowing Batman to knock out all of his men. And despite how familiar he is with Batman's tactics, when Batman begins climbing the tower to his control room and his thugs can't locate him, Strange just assumes he's fallen off.]] Arguably, his lackluster security and decision to control the prison with [=WayneTech=] equipment and having his headquaters on a tower without emergency exits extend to a larger timespan that the third act, but his actions near the climax are more notable.
86	*** Strange reveals in the ''opening cutscene'' that he knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman, but fails to use this as a way to stop Batman's advance. That he doesn't do it at ''any'' time is bad enough, but it's especially JustForFun/{{egregious}} in the climax, considering it's one of the few times Batman is taking direct action against Strange's plan, rather than dealing with a peripheral issue.
87	** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' ultimately plays this trope straight, but not without some heavy [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zagging]] first. By the endgame, [[ScaryScarecrows Scarecrow]] has scored [[DarkestHour a major victory]] by [[spoiler:covering Gotham City in the Cloudburst fear toxin, and plans to do the same to the entire American East Coast]]. Scarecrow is content to sit back and watch Batman suffer; but his [[TheDragon Dragon]], the titular Arkham Knight, who knows full well how dangerous Batman can be and specifically [[VillainTeamUp joined up with Scarecrow]] [[{{Revenge}} so he can get even with the Bat]], is having none of it and [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim decides to go after Batman himself]]. After the Knight [[spoiler:reveals himself to be Jason Todd and is taken out by Batman, Scarecrow continues with his initial ToThePain plan as though nothing happened]]. [[SpannerInTheWorks Unbeknownst to Scarecrow, however]], [[spoiler:The Joker, who has been serving as Batman's EnemyWithin for much of the game, begins taking over Batman's psyche the more Bruce is exposed to the fear gas. Even though Scarecrow manages to get Batman to unmask himself on national television, he ''still'' loses because he's so intent on breaking Batman through fear that he inadvertently allows Batman to win through fear toxin; first by allowing Joker to take over, then by showing him a BadFuture where the MonsterClown AttentionWhore dies alone and forgotten, allowing Bruce to regain control]].
88	* In ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', [[CardCarryingVillain Hazama]]/[[AxCrazy Yuuki]] [[{{Troll}} Terumi]] fell hard on this trope. He spent ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCalamityTrigger'' standing on the sidelines of the GroundhogDayLoop, memorizing everyone's patterns, carefully manipulating events, setting up [[CrazyPrepared lots and lots of preparations]] and playing XanatosSpeedChess with [[GuileHero Rachel]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Alucard]], one of the few besides himself with RippleEffectProofMemory, for the chance of breaking the time loop with a head start, all without letting slip that he's a bad guy. And at the end of the first act/game, the loop ''is'' finally broken, all of his plans play out smoothly and everything ends in his advantage... In ''VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift'' he has a spell come into effect that allows him to observe all timelines of the [[TitleDrop Continuum Shift]], effectively allowing him to ''choose'' the exact timeline in which the protagonists hold the IdiotBall, he successfully forges [[Myth/JapaneseMythology Kusanagi:]] [[RageAgainstTheHeavens Sword of the Godslayer]], outmaneuvers [[TheOmniscient Takamagahara]], and finally [[TheBadGuysWin gets to declare himself the winner of the second act/game]]. Hey, I told you he was CrazyPrepared... However, come ''VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma'' he makes several stupid, amateurish mistakes that ultimately end up getting him killed by the heroes midway through the third act/game... [[spoiler:In ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCentralFiction'', the final act/game of the series, it turns out that he [[LivingOnBorrowedTime barely survived]], and while he does wise up, he's ultimately forced to wait in the shadows for a perfect opportunity to rear its face before he can act... once he does, however, he achieves a harrowing NearVillainVictory and is only narrowly defeated and killed after a long, hard-fought battle]].
89	** JustifiedTrope: Due to there being no more time loops, Hazama/Terumi suddenly couldn't take his time to memorize his opponents' moves, abuse trial-and-error for fun and profit and [[ResetButton make numerous attempts to win]] until he came out on top, and thanks to [[TimeyWimeyBall the space-time continuum]] [[TemporalParadox being messed up]] due to two warring gods, observing outcomes was rendered useless as well and, robbed of his cheats, Hazama/Terumi simply couldn't adapt to the real pace of the world.
90	** Likewise, this trope was actually {{foreshadow\|ing}}ed during ''Continuum Shift EXTEND''. ''Slight Hope'' serves as a control environment where Hazama is void of foresight regarding a single threat ([[spoiler:an extra-continual]] Makoto) and has to adapt to it on the fly. Not only does he fail to properly evaluate the threat (going so far as to ''[[LooseLips leak a vital detail]]'' to it), but he fails to keep in touch with his partner in crime Relius Clover for the event where said threat [[TakeAThirdOption defuses the trap set for it via proxy]]. End result:
91	---> '''Hazama''': [[YouMeddlingKids Thanks to your fluttering around doing as you please,]] [[SpannerInTheWorks my plans have gone fair-to-middling]] '''[[SpannerInTheWorks FUBAR!]]'''
92	* ''VideoGame/ElohimEternalTheBabelCode'': By the endgame, the party has the Babel code and Ruthia is the only one other than Og and Sihon who can use it. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:Joshwa foolishly decides to trust Lamech when the party returns to Jericho, and he gives the pieces of the code to Lamech. This is despite all signs that point to Lamech being the one who planted the infernos for the Kosmokraters. As a result, Anat steals the pieces and forces Ruthia to open Mount Sinai]].
93	* ''VideoGame/KnightEternal'': If Dylan [[spoiler:inspected the corpse in the southern cell in Zamaste's castle more closely, he would have realized that the corpse isn't Uno and he could have convinced Stray to stand down without a fight. As a result, Stray ends up as one part of the FinalBoss duo in order to avenge Uno]].
94	* ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheThirdPower'': While Rowan himself is an IdiotHero, the party as a whole makes a fatal mistake after landing in Arkadya. Despite knowing that they're being followed by Sparrow, the party continues toward their destination without coming up with any countermeasures, [[spoiler:leading to the entire Resistance HQ being exposed to the Arkadyans and destroyed. As a result, most of their allies are dead or imprisoned, raising the stakes for the rest of the game. Fittingly, this happens just before the final act of the game.]]
95	* ''[[VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice Sam and Max Save the World]]: Situation: Comedy'': The final puzzle would be much easier if Sam and Max could just ''leave their seats'' to knock Myra unconscious, but the sheer force of personality of "America's Mom" means that when Myra tells them to stay seated, Sam can't bring himself to break the social conventions of a talk show. Meanwhile Max, who normally wouldn't care about that sort of thing, would rather take the chance to talk about himself at length.
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98	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
99	* Yoshiyuki in ''VisualNovel/DaCapoII'' develops this during the Koko route. While he's never super perceptive about love, in this route he basically goes out of his way to be as incompetent as possible about the matter until the point the stupidity starts to edge into {{jerkass}}ery. The most likely reason is that there's no real dramatic story set up for Koko; she loves Yoshiyuki, pretty much always has and has nothing seriously wrong with her life.
100	* In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', this is the (self-acknowledged) critical weakness of [[{{TheLancer}} Rin]] - she gets all the little things right, gets all the middle-sized things right, and then screws it up when it really counts. [[{{Foil}} This helps contrast her]] with [[TheHero Shirou]], who's [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass the opposite.]]
101	* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' pretty much relies on this trope- just about every case in the series would end with the real villain getting away, except they'll make one or two major slip ups during a testimony as a witness. If they simply had better thought out lies (and often they do until that moment), or just refused testimony in cases of those who have that ability, then they'd never be caught.
102	** The one time [[spoiler:Phoenix's client is guilty, he is also a very good schemer who had fooled Phoenix and several other people very well, and even after his reveal he [[SadisticChoice made sure the lawyer is stuck with him.]] So, how can this villain be beatable at all? By [[BullyingADragon attempting to blackmail a master assassin who was loyally working for him, of course!]] Which is way dumber than any of his other evil acts.]]
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:Western Animation]]
106	* In the finale of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Zuko tells Katara that he can beat Azula alone, which turns out to be true and is about to one-hit Azula the same way he did a few episodes back with his father (and at that time he was unprepared). Then he makes the mistake of taunting her. Katara makes the mistake of standing too close to the action. Result? Azula fires at Katara and Zuko is taken out of commission shielding her from the lightning, leaving Katara to finish what he started.
107	** It wasn't the taunt itself that was Zuko's mistake. He taunted Azula for the specific purpose of drawing out her lightning attack. You can even see Zuko preparing to redirect the lightning. Zuko's mistake (aside from just wanting to show off that he had one technique that Azula didn't) was that he underestimated how lucid Azula still was. Even in her VillainousBreakdown, she still thought clearly enough to realize that targeting Katara, not Zuko, was the best move.
108	** [[spoiler:Luckily he survives, and because there are standard sportsmanship rules in an Agni Kai]], Zuko still won the moment she attacked a spectator. However, you've still got a paranoid lunatic shooting lightning everywhere and, Agni Kai or not, she has to be stopped, so on with the show!
109	* ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'': In "Molly and the Great One," [[FearlessFool Mac]] swears that nothing will keep him from sumitting Denali. Nothing, that is, except frostbite and his own hubris.
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Real Life]]
113	* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Syracuse_(213-212_BC) The Siege of Syracuse during the Second Punic War]]. To defend his city, Archimedes had designed defensive weapons such as ship-sinking cranes, ballistae, onagers, and possibly even a ''heat ray'' made of focused mirrors. They were so successful that eventually the defenders became overconfident and got drunk on duty, during a festival of Artemis, allowing a group of Romans to breach their defenses and take control of the outer walls.
114	[[/folder]]
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Context Main / ThirdActStupidity