Leeroy Jenkins behaviour in literature.
- Bazil Broketail:
- Relkin has shades of this in first few volumes, though not for expected reasons. He doesn't throw himself into mortal danger out of mere recklessness, but desperation — usually when Bazil is in danger. He picks a fight with a troll (and ends up disemboweling it) when it gains advantage over his dragon in a sword duel and runs head-first against a demon from another dimension when it's pummeling his comrades.
- Swane is a bit too eager to prove himself in battle and as a consequence he tends to act first and think later (or never at all).
- Jumble separated from his squadron in a reckless, lone pursuit after fleeing enemies. If he hadn't done that, he would've still been alive.
- Wiliger tends to suffer from this when he's not currently paralyzed with fear. During the battle of Koubha, he bravely leads the charge of his squadron at the enemy... despite the fact that he puts himself at danger of getting beheaded by his own dragons' swords that way. This forces the dragons to speed up in order to overtake him and he nearly gets trampled as a result.
- The Belgariad: The Arends have a reputation for charging headlong into battles with little to no planning. Against anyone else, they're likely to win anyway just because any Arendish knight who's still alive is so because he's survived this sort of insane charge before.
- In Big Trouble, Matt Arnold, a seventeen-year-old Southeast High student trying to "kill" his classmate Jenny Herk in a game, barges into the Herk family residence as soon as its door opens, shouting while brandishing his realistic-looking squirt gun. In his wild enthusiasm, he proves unable to even articulate "HEY JENNY!" properly. This goes even worse for Matt than one might expect after a real hitman lurking outside fires a bullet at Jenny's father (and hits the TV instead).
- Chaos Seeds: Not really having any other options, Richter frees a wind demon and tells it that the other guy's about to attack it, and then he and Sion do their best to get as far away from the ensuing battle as they can. Fittingly, he gets Sion to shout the famous cry with him, telling him that it's a battle cry from his homeland... only to reveal afterward that it's "more of a 'we're totally fucked and I hope this works' cry".
- Chrysalis (RinoZ): Lampshaded when one of the twenty Super Prototype ants, created as leaders for the future colony, is unable to adapt to the new mindset of "dying is a waste", and remains fixated on making a Heroic Sacrifice; Anthony names each of them (which is a new concept for the ants), and she becomes Leeroy.
- Conan the Barbarian: Count Thespides from "Black Colossus" ignores Conan's sage military tactics and rushes into battle with his men, falling straight into the fiery trap of Natohk in the process, mainly due to his aristocratic pride and his difficulty in taking orders from a foreign barbarian. Conan refuses to go to his aid, and when Yasmela's page asks why, he replies, "Because I am not so great a fool as he."
- In The Cry of the Icemark, some militia breaking ranks to pursue the enemy at the wrong moment results in the loss of an entire elite regiment.
- Danny, the Champion of the World: Danny's father has a moment of this in his carefully planned operation to poach two hundred pheasants. Having planned to scatter two hundred prepared raisins in the wood over a wide area, he and Danny hide on the edge of a clearing full of pheasants under the nose of a keeper, and throw the raisins in, one by one. When the keeper turns his head away, Danny's father throws the whole lot of raisins in at once. Of course, the birds then pecking madly at the raisins attracts the keeper's attention.
- Discworld:
- In his first appearance in Guards! Guards!, Carrot Ironfoundersson is something of a Leeroy Jenkins — except he still has discipline, and can be forestalled from doing any crazy shit by ordering him to do something else. Further, because he's Carrot, he pulls off what little Leeroy Jenkins-ish stuff his fellow watchmen don't stop him from doing (arresting a dragon, arresting the head of the thieves' guild, arresting a rowdy bar in Ankh-Morpork, and arresting the Patrician). It should be pointed out that Carrot is technically the king of Anhk-Morpork which means that his success is justified.
- In Jingo there are also the D'regs, desert tribesmen who live to wreak havoc on the Klatchian establishment. When Carrot asks one of them if it is wise to charge an enemy under particular circumstances, the D'reg replies, "it is always wise to charge." Carrot convinces them not to.
- The Dresden Files: Most of the time Harry comes up with rather decent plans, it's just a given fact that everything will go wrong for him in some way, forcing him to do this. That does not mean it is not his first plan for each given situation. Notable moments being riding a revived Sue the Tyrannosaur directly into a group of necromancers trying to become gods, his battle plan to stop the Summer Lady from ruining the balance in Faerie, and challenging a noblewoman of the Red Court of vampires to a duel to the death to get a girl — his daughter — she kidnapped in the middle of her speech to the White Council apparently calling for an end to the war between the two groups.To quote from the twelfth book, Changes, "Fuck subtle." When playing in-universe RPGs, though, Dresden lives this trope. Anything else would be too much like work.
- In the Cory Doctorow novel For the Win, one of the only American characters in the book likes to make money by working with a group of Chinese gamers that help rich westerners with tough MMO battles for a living. Their "customer" in this case plays the trope completely straight, charging recklessly into the boss chamber and ruining the team's careful plans.
- J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fall of Gondolin: Deconstructed. Tuor and Voronwë are on route to Gondolin when they come upon an Orc camp standing in the middle of the road. Tuor wants to attack them immediately, but his Elf friend points out that there are more Orcish posts watching the road. If Tuor makes his reckless attack he will bring a host upon them, and Vonronwë refuses to show him the way to the Hidden Elf Village with an army at their heels.
- Harry Potter
- Harry Potter is like this all the time. It's significant character development in Deathly Hallows when he knows exactly where Voldemort is and what he's up to... and he deliberately doesn't move to stop him, despite Voldemort gaining a very powerful magical artifact as a result. It works out for Harry; the wand Voldemort gains doesn't work for him at its full power — because Harry has already become its master.
- Sirius Black also shows this tendency in Prisoner of Azkaban. Upon learning that the traitor who framed him has been living with the family of Harry's friend for the last twelve years in a guise of a rat, he immediately springs from the prison and rushes in to save his godson. This leads said godson to think he's evil and spend the entire book working against him.
- Subverted in The Hearts We Sold. The Daemon is viewed as this by the rest of his kind, since he works closely with humans (who are often viewed as being too unpredictable to be useful), breaks several rules of interacting with humans, and generally goes off and does his own thing while his superiors stick to their own, safer plan. However, it quickly becomes clear that the Daemon is the only one making any real progress towards their goal. It's worth noting that while other demons view him as being a foolhardy extremist, the human characters think of him as inhumanely pragmatic.
- Implied Spaces: when Grax the Troll's battle cry turns out to be "Grax the Troll!!!!", the protagonist's cat remarks, "Not exactly 'Leeroy Jenkins', but I suppose it will do.".
- Julian orders Libino to take half a legion and go off to negotiate with a German King. On the way, he meets a German force five times his own. He promptly orders an attack, and he and his Romans are massacred.
- The protagonist of The Knights of the Cross has taken a (spontaneous) vow to gather three evil knights' helmet plumes. So what does he do when he sees an evil knight with a plume in the middle of the good guys territory? Attack! Which is how he gets into trouble for attacking an envoy.
- Larry Niven's Known Space: the sentient-carnivore Kzinti always attack before they're ready. The greater the chance of defeat, the greater the honor of victory! This tendency was bred into them by the Jotoki, and eugenically bred back out when their suicidal warriors died in glorious battle.
- There are whole fleets in The Lost Fleet that fight in this way. Deconstructed as it results in heavy losses. Averted in one battle when the plan was seemingly to head-on battle with twist at the end.
- A Mage's Power: Tiza would have been this if Sathel hadn't drilled it out of her. She loves rushing into danger and sometimes forgets that she's part of a team. Thanks to her apprentice mentor, she always has some rudimentary plan and will drag at least one of her teammates by the hair into trouble.
- Martin, the main character of Magic 2.0, is definitely this. This becomes clear early on. Despite being a programmer and a hacker (who hasn't gotten caught hacking anything), he tends to be pretty impulse and doesn't think things through before rushing into the very thick of it. Fortunately for him, his more thoughtful friends tend to take advantage of this and use him as a distraction for the real plan. Martin's showy nature also tends to attract as much attention as possible. In the second book, he gets praise for this from a guy, who initially doesn't like him. In that guy's mind, Martin acts "like a real man" by charging in without thought for his own safety, while everyone else is still reacting. When Martin points out that he screws up a lot, the guy insists that trying and screwing up is still better than not trying at all. Note that this doesn't make Martin stupid. In fact, in that same book, he is the one who figures out the identity of the Big Bad, while everyone else is at a loss (mostly because the others are assuming other people are logical, while Martin knows for a fact that they aren't). In the third book, Martin's ability to act without thinking everything through becomes key during the climax, as his companions are an engineer, an architect, and a clothing designer — all of which require time to properly plan things out. His poorly thought-out plan and improvisations end up saving the day, especially after he tells the others not to poke holes in the plan and just do their part.
- In The Mouse Watch, protagonist Bernie Skampersky has a nasty habit of rushing into danger without any plans or preparation. Fortunately, she's resourceful enough to think her way out of trouble, and when that doesn't work her fellow Watchers come to her rescue.
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians:
- It's easier to count the times Percy's plans don't boil down to: "I'll just make it up as I go along and try not to get killed" (especially when he's leaping to someone else's defense). This contrasts with his best friend Annabeth who is The Strategist. The combination makes them unstoppable fighting partners however as Annabeth admits.Interviewer: Who would you most like to have with you in battle?
Annabeth: Oh, Percy. No contest I mean sure he can be annoying but he's brave and he's a good fighter. Normally, as long as I'm telling him what to do, he wins in a fight. - Percy's Dad Poseidon also slips into reckless tactics as the chaotic God of the Sea, while Annabeth's mom is the Goddess of Wisdom and Battle Strategy.
- It's easier to count the times Percy's plans don't boil down to: "I'll just make it up as I go along and try not to get killed" (especially when he's leaping to someone else's defense). This contrasts with his best friend Annabeth who is The Strategist. The combination makes them unstoppable fighting partners however as Annabeth admits.
- The eponymous Prince Roger, much to the constant despair of the marine attachment trying to safely get him home from the Death World they're shipwrecked on, partly due to thinking him just a Long-Haired Pretty Boy that needs saving from his own incompetence. They later discover that while Roger does charge off half-cocked at times, he's more than just the foppish dandy they've always pictured him as, as it was Roger's habit to ditch his guards when out on hunts, which left no witnesses for his badassery while hunting big game.
- In Redwall, Felldoh comes over as one. His actions cast all of his friends and the army they were leading, which wasn't prepared, into a deadly battle that wasn't planned. It ends with his death. He was a berserkir squirrel. What can one expect?
- In Septimus Heap, Jenna attacks Jakey Fry without a concern for not being seen by the pirates that are fighting above her.
- The Seventh Tower: Don't even try to tell Milla to retreat. If she's not getting you captured by the guards, she's getting you smote off a hill by angry sentient clouds.
- A Song of Ice and Fire:
- Fire & Blood: At the start of the Dance of the Dragons, Aegon II's initial plan for dealing with his half-sister (and legitimate heir to the throne who he was usurping) was to rush her on the heavily fortified island of Dragonstone, all on his own. His mother and uncle in-law had to patiently explain why this was a stupid idea, dragon or no dragon.
- A Feast for Crows:
- Ser Arys dies when he unexpectedly charges Areo Hotah's troops.note
- Unwilling to wait for a sapping operation to succeed and guarantee a bloodless taking of Dragonstone, Ser Loras leads a direct charge that takes the castle at a cost of a thousand lives.
- A couple of times it's observed that having a follower with a reputation for this behaviour can be useful to their superiors as it makes them easily deniable. Tywin can send Gregor Clegane to murder a princess and plausibly claim afterwards that he was acting with no orders; Littlefinger arranges for Lyn Corbray to draw steel against him at a negotiating table, a dire insult which wrongfoots Lyn's ostensible allies into making concessions to keep the peace.
- At the start of his trial to become a full member of the Guild of Mages in Spells, Swords, & Stealth, Grumph very deliberately charges straight into the arena rather than take the time to make preparations. This actually works in Grumph's favor, since charging through when most in this situation do take time to make those preparations means he also passes the enemies set to oppose him while they are still getting into position. This gets Grumph to the first major obstacle in the trial without incident and with enough time to get through it before they catch up to him. It also mitigates the fact Grumph doesn't have a lot of magic or mana to make preparations with, because he Leeroyed in a more metaphorical sense by insisting on taking the trials almost immediately to get help to his friends as soon as possible, which he could only do by getting full membership.
- Mahina from the Tempest (2011) trilogy is normally a highly intelligent mermaid, but she deals very badly with stress. In Tempest Unleashed, Tempest and Mahina are hiding in a nook, waiting for Sabyn and Scylla to attack them first, which Tempest says is the best strategy, until Mahina panics and attacks too soon. They still win the fight, but Mahina is injured.
- Trapped on Draconica: Ben uses the name as a battle cry. He tries to explain the Trope Namer to his companions but ultimately gives up.
- In War Of The Rats, we have a squad of newbie snipers who are assigned to monitor but not fire on German soldiers during the siege of Stalingrad. One of the newbies gets fed up with seeing all these prime targets walking around and screams an order to open fire. The ensuing fusillade gives the German mortarmen a perfect opportunity to shell the crap out of them. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero is in full effect.
- In Warrior Cats: Sign Of The Moon, Foxleap decides to save the rogues from an eagle attack, so the Clan and Tribe cats drive the eagle off. But it results in one Tribe cat to get taken away by a hawk. Foxleap feels guilty about this, but as one Tribe cats puts it when scolding him, the damage had been done.
- Rand al'Thor of The Wheel of Time goes back and forth on his propensity for this depending on his current Sanity Slippage status. One notable instance is in Path of Daggers when, under the influence of an insanity-inducing Amplifier Artifact, he unleashes a lightning storm that does as much damage to his own forces as to the enemy. After gaining Enlightenment Superpowers in the later books, this strategy tends to be more successful because he's just that powerful.
- X-Wing Series: When Wraith Squadron is first formed, "Runt" (or at least his 'pilot mind') flies this way, zooming off after enemies without paying any attention to his allies, tactics, or strategy. Kell is quite put out when he's unable to save Runt from getting "killed" in their first simulated training mission, and then gets their points swapped, leaving Kell with a zero. In a later mission, he eventually manages to rein the pilot mind in, by acquiring a target lock on Runt himself.Runt: Six to Five, are you going to fire on us?
Kell: Negative, Six.
Runt: Then what are you doing?
Kell: Getting your attention. Do I have it?
Runt: Yes, Five.
Kell: Then get back in formation. I'm lead, you're my wing.
