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They don't get much ditzier than good ol' Gourry.
The Idiot Hero is a common character in shonen action series. Often, he's is both the main protagonist, and the central character of the narrative. He will frequently use the Indy Ploy, will probably be a Big Eater, will be too stupid to be afraid of imminent peril, and will often have a short memory span. Don't be surprised if he exhibits elements of This Loser Is You.
Despite all of this, he is the most effective member of the cast at fighting, usually wielding a BFS or Ki Attacks. He will also usually be the leader of a tight-knit group of characters, despite the fact that he doesn't have the brains to lead a cat out of a paper bag. This is because he is so stupid as to be incorruptible, and has the ability to maintain a childlike innocence and faith in people that inspires those around him. Or alternatively his Gym Teacher convinced him a Paladin can't chase the chicks like a Fighter because of virtue.
The Idiot Hero is usually a mutation of The Fool. However, unlike The Fool, the Idiot Hero usually has some idealistic goal in mind, usually becoming the " best warrior ever", and is usually much more aggressive when irked. The Idiot Hero usually enjoys fighting, and is always looking for a challenge. Despite his hours of intense combat, though, he doesn't take the threat of death very seriously for himself. The only way to actually anger the Idiot Hero will be inevitably to hurt one of their friends, or Innocent Bystanders. The Shounen Idiot Hero generally has notably spiked hair and something physically unusual about him, like blond hair. Note that if he is blond and blue-eyed, his smarter Lancer will probably be very Japanese looking (black, straight hair and paler), creating very Unfortunate Implications.
With Character Development, the Idiot Hero may mature into The Messiah. Also, many Idiot Heroes have at least some element of Crouching Moron Hidden Badass to them.
The Idiot Hero is usually opposed or rivaled by The Stoic Aloof Big Brother. If the Idiot Hero is actually a sleazy Badass, then his stupidity is actually an Obfuscating Stupidity.
The Idiot Hero is especially prone to being the Determinator. The more arrogant the Idiot Hero is, the more vulnerable he is to mundane hazards; Idiot Heros generally are the most vulnerable to such hazards to begin with. May contain Hot Blood. Is occasionally seen as carrying implications of Dumb Is Good.
The sidekick of the Idiot Hero is frequently Mr Exposition or a Hero Worshipper, who has no compunctions against explaining things the hero ought to already know when the hero is a moron.
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Examples
Anime and Manga
- Ash from Pokémon.
- As Ash has improved, May and Dawn have picked up the load gamely.
- Similarly to Ash, considering they're based off the same character, Red, from Pokemon Special.
- Red, like Ash, got over it, but considerably quicker. Gold, on the other hand, is lucky he's a Determinator, or he'd actually be dead.
- One could point out that Gold actually acts his age, and that he's a very quick thinker. Seriously, we're talking about a guy who beat a Tyranitar by secretly unleashing a Togepi to do a point blank Double Edge, and a guy who, directly after learning what a capture spot is, used his billiards skillz to ricochet a Friend Ball off some rocks to hit a Heavy Ball Silver dropped, causing both to come flying back to the trainers, who then promptly caught a Teddiursa (Gold, who was getting one for Kurt's daughter) and an Ursaring (Silver wanted one).
- Kazuma from S-CRY-ed. He is more philosophical than most examples of this trope, and prefers to think of himself as "hands-on" than stupid.
- Luffy from One Piece.
- Arguably, most (if not all) of the male Straw Hats period. Even Oda lampshades this in a SBS.
- Flint from Flint the Time Detective.
- Bit Cloud from Zoids: New Century Zero.
- Takuya from Digimon Frontier.
- Preceded by Taichi and Daisuke; succeeded by Masaru.
- Taichi and Daisuke, however, were more realistic than most examples of this trope, and matured as the series progressed. They also seemed closer to their actual ages than most of the other kids: both are eleven in the beginning of Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02. The only reason they ever seem like Idiot Heroes is because the rest of the characters are startlingly mature for their ages.
- Also, the whole Western-featured Idiot Hero and Japanese-featured Lancer seems to have been averted in both Taichi's and Daisuke's case. Yamato (Lancer to Taichi) and Takeru (one of the two Lancers to Daisuke) are both part-French, and it is they who are blonde and blue-eyed instead.
- It's safe to assume that almost every incarnation of Digimon has a leader/protagionist who is an Idiot Hero.
- Takato would take exception, he has the personality type but is also rather Genre Savvy.
- This troper disagrees about Takuya. He's much more mature than the leaders in 01 and 02.
- Louie of Rune Soldier Louie — the despair of his adventuring buddies. The priestess who was directly ordered by her God to follow Louie as her personal Hero constantly cried "This is not my will!" and has no faith in his heroism until the final story arc.
- Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann embodies idiot heroism to a degree rarely seen, perfectly happy to run off a cliff brandishing a sword in an attempt to fight an enemy in a giant robot, and believing that sheer bloody minded determination can make up for any deficiency in skills or knowledge. A character-defining moment is when he stabs his Humongous Mecha with Simon's smaller drill-equipped mecha in an effort to combine them. If his universe didn't run on Rule Of Cool, that would have been rather awkward, especially since the thing almost impaled his head. Basically, the only thing that saves him is Genre Savvy. Alas, Kamina proved to be Too Dumb To Live, making an accidental Heroic Sacrifice in episode 8.
- How dare you say that he was Too Dumb To Live, his death was the most awesome heroic and cool things ever! He was not being dumb, it was a Heroic Sacrifice that saved the Dai-Gurren Brigade.
- In Kamina's defense, he's actually a fairly intelligent guy, but is acting in a way that will motivate Simon to suceed.
oops w00t.
- Usagi from Sailor Moon is a rare female example, especially in the early series since she matures and becomes The Messiah.
- ... And her evolutionary descendant, Nozomi from Yes! Precure 5, is an example as well.
- Excel from Excel Saga is both a female example and a parody.
- Goku from Dragon Ball, though this was partly due to Character Exaggeration in the anime.
- Yusuke, being what appears to be an Expy of Goku with a Jerkass Delinquent layer over him, also falls under this trope. He is severely, SEVERELY Book Dumb; he got a bloody 12 on a science test. Kuwabara is worse; he got a 7.
- Naruto in Naruto, though it's primarily Book Dumb, and he's a lot better after the Time Skip... at least strategy-wise.
- There's around one Idiot Hero per squad. Kiba and Choji are straight examples, while Lee and Guy are arguably a parody of this.
- Ikki from Air Gear.
- Kid Muscle from Ultimate Muscle.
- Tamaki Suoh from Ouran High School Host Club is so dumb, he concludes that his possessiveness towards, his nervousness around and wanting to kiss the first real female friend he's ever had is because he wants to be her... get ready for it... father. His Nakama knows he is dumb, but assumed this was just a metaphor. Then they learned that no, he really thinks that is logical. Even though Tamaki's hobby and job is entertaining women, so he knows what romance is. He's the school King of romance.
- Luckily, he isn't really the King of the Host Club. We all know who the Shadow King is.
- However, true to form, his idiocy ends up making him become The Messiah, helping all the others in the Host Club from their social problems.
- Also his idiocity only relates to relationships, which is probably explained away by his own family history. He's actually second in his class, right after Kyoya.
- Gourry Gabriev from Slayers is pretty much a personification of this trope and is (as is all of Slayers) at least partly parody. He doesn't know basic facts about... well, pretty much anything other than food and fighting, and is prone to forgetting minor details like the names of his best friends, and that time a few months back when they saved the universe in an epic battle of good and evil. But his combat skills are such that he can assess the skills of other characters accurately just by glancing at them and can hold his own in a fight against everything up to deities when he has his legendary Sword of Light. Word Of God states that in addition to his skill with the sword, he's got the innate talent to be a truly frightening sorcerer — but he's too dumb to remember the necessary magic words.
- Gourry subverted the trope, in a way, in the one time throughout the entire series that he showed any signs of intellect; when Xellos is finally revealed to be a Mazoku, good old Gourry is shocked to hear that no one else had figured it out. He had known since the beginning.
- Speaking of Slayers, this is somewhat subverted in one episode ("Geoffry's Knighthood") with Geoffry, whose mother employes Lina and Naga to accompany him on his quests. Although Geoffry is an "idiot", he fails somewhat on the "hero" — all of the badass fighting is actually done by his mother ("disguised" by a bag over her head). However, the final Boss is genuinely terrified when Geoffry appears...
- That's got little to do with Geoffry, though. As one comes to expect of Slayers, there's a new layer of parody here. The main boss is Geoffry's Dad!! And the reason for the fear is eminently logical; the man KNOWS his maniac of a wife will be by to defend Geoffry. That reaction is pure channeling of Harry Mudd, my friends.
- Gourry also subverts this trope in the original novel series where he is far more capable and his ditziness is closer to ObfuscatingStupidity. It's the anime series that flanderized this idiot trait to max.
- Truth be told, Gourry isn't quite as stupid as he appears at first glance, even in the anime — it's actually a borderline Justified Trope. In pretty much every official bit of background detail, it's explicitly stated that, while he does have some memory problems, the main problem is he mingles a happy-go-lucky nature with a really screwed up/simple (depending on how you look at it) set of priorities: all he really cares about is fighting and where the next meal is coming from. Old enemies and absent comrades just aren't important enough to stress over. Gourry's ignorance of things that his allies know is also justifiable on two levels. On the meta level, this makes him the perfect tool to draw out expositions so that the viewers know what's going on. In the universe himself, Gourry's traveling companions are all professional magic users, one of whom is a trained sorceress, another is a princess and trained sorceress, and the third is the ex-pupil (and descendant) of one of the most powerful and learned wizards in the whole damn world. Gourry, by comparison, is a simple mercenary from the backwater desert country of Elmekia. Naturally, they're going to know far more about demons, spells, enchanted artifacts and other such occult lore. They don't tend to cover such material in military camps.
- Invoked recently in the Mahou Sensei Negima manga. The hero Negi Springfield is intelligent... intelligent enough to worry and hesitate. The Rival has stated that Negi needs more "idiocy" to be a better fighter (Negi goes on to ask his trainer how to be an idiot, like him). Compounding on this, according to flashbacks, Negi's legendary father Nagi appears to be a textbook example of an Idiot Hero. (For example: instead of memorizing his combat spells, he wades into battle with crib notes in one hand.)
- Jack Rakan probably also counts. Maybe.
- Kotaro definitely counts; he even prides himself on it.
- Goku from Saiyuki. The most recent manga chapters suggest that he is slowly maturing, however.
- Azuma from Yakitate Japan, though he's more of a Genius Ditz.
- Arguably, Shu from Now And Then Here And There.
- Jil, from The Tower of Druaga. In battle, he's been known to do exactly the opposite of what his more experienced party mates consider the most sensible tactics. He's also one of the only characters on the quest for the purpose of slaying Druaga, and has been called a "Justice Freak". Comes complete with an Aloof Big Brother.
- Arika Yumemiya from Mai-Otome, although in her case it's more a matter of being inexperienced with the world. She gains some confidence and competence as the series goes on, but while almost everyone else in Mai-Otome Zwei has become Older And Wiser, Arika lapses back into Idiot Hero mode.
- Which is only one of the reasons why Zwei is subject to DisContinuity by the fans.
- One of the older examples of an idiot hero is Kouji Kabuto from Mazinger Z. Excellent pilot, marvelous sniper, big ass Determinator, pretty good with motorcycles — but his little brother, his girlfriend and his Gonk rival keep correcting and even bitchslapping him (verbally and literally) for his lack of tact, sexism and big mouth.
- Sonsaku Hakufu from Ikki Tousen is a total idiot. She knows it herself, even though she hates being called stupid, which happens so often that she should actually be used to it. Her inner dragon makes her a very strong fighter, though, and like all other female warriors in the series she is totally hot, which is a combination that definitely helps her to get more respect from her peers.
- Momoko from SumomoMoMomoMo.
- Hunter Steele from Spider Riders.
- Yoichi, the lead of Asu No Yoichi!. Since he spent most of his life training in the mountains, all he thinks about is fighting.
- Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach has many of these traits, at least early on (main protagonist, best fighter, leader, enjoys fighting, unusual hair, protective of friends, etc.). His stupidity mainly takes the form of leaping in impulsively without thinking things through or attempting to talk/negotiate, and failing to pick up on clues. His invasion of the Soul Society in the "Soul Society Arc" was an Indy Ploy from start to finish.
- Not to mention his "plan" for defeating a Menos Grande early in the season, which consisted entirely of chopping off its feet, then continue to chop parts of it off until the head was within range, at which point he would start attacking that.
- Though it should be noted that, academically, he is intelligent, enough to be among the best students in his class.
- Background mentions that he loves reading Shakespeare. So Yeah
- Ichigo is much smarter, deeper, and more mature than, say, Luffy, Naruto, or Goku (represented by his male Voice Actor instead of a woman doing a childish voice), and he even looks like an adult compared to them. It's just that he doesn't have much to work with so his strategy is generally "hit with sword" especially early on. Later on when he starts to add more skills to his arsenal like Flashstep and his Hollow powers his battle get more creative.
- On the other hand, Abarai Renji fits the trope quite well; in fact, when he ventures into Ichigo's school masquerading as his cousin, absolutely everybody can see the similarities. Particularly when they simultaneously kick someone bothering them in the face in exactly the same way. But he acts even dumber than Ichigo at his worst, which is probably why he's such a Jobber.
- Keep in mind that that part was filler, so it doesn't count.
- Besides, Renji IS a Lieutenant, basically the Vice-Captain, and ya can't be an idiot and have as high a rank as that!
- While the titular character of The Law of Ueki does have several brilliant insights, especially in battle, for the most part he seems rather simple-minded and clueless. On first meeting Tenko's gignatic dog-like form, he thinks it's just a really big chicken of all things.
- Black Star of Soul Eater embodies this character type, while main character Maka is quite the opposite.
- Domon Kasshu from G Gundam is not only Hot Blooded, but Raised By Wolves and Not Good With People. The results are, well, special. His Lancer and The Kid of his group are also a bit idiotic sometimes, but nowhere that bad.
- Michiko from Michiko To Hatchin arguably qualifies. She tends to make quite questionable decisions while she runs away from the police and tries to find her old boyfriend — her flashy appearance not even being the stupidest. Fortunately, the girl she took with her, Hana, is actually quite a bit more intelligent. Unfortunately, Michiko never listens to her.
- Alice L. Malvin of Pumpkin Scissors insists on going after evil no matter the odds, so obviously, her subordinates have to stop her from just charging head on into battle and come up with a more effective, less risky plan.
- Judai of Yu-Gi-Oh GX — Goal To Be A Master? Check. Spiky hair? Check. Too Dumb To Live? Check. Idealist? Check. Magnet for Nakama? Check. Big Eater? Check. Book Dumb? Double check. Character Development into The Messiah? Just the opposite. There's only so much a kid can take.
- Musubi from Sekirei, in spades.
- Though he's not necessarily the main character and hero, America from Axis Powers Hetalia has several of the typical Idiot Hero traits.
- Natsu from Fairy Tail demonstrates many elements of this. In a semi-subversion, despite being Hot Blooded Determinator, prone to causing extreme collateral damage and social obliviousness, he's perfectly capable of fighting intelligently and wins through unorthodox use of his abilities at least as often as through sheer power.
- Gon from Hunter X Hunter.
- Baccano!'s Firo Prochainezo is one, and also thoroughly aware of it.
- Gintoki from Gintama and almost anyone who can fight in this anime. Except for Shinpachi.
- Padudu from Magical Play.
- Dan from Basquash!.
- Hayate Kurogane of Hayate X Blade, who is repeatedly told so by her eventual fighting partner, Ayana Mudou.
- The main protagonist Hamel from Violinist of Hameln, though he is more likely to be decribed as the bastard hero. Raiel could also easily be put in this category.
- This is how Yogi from Karneval can act before he starts battle. He's usually rather sunshiny and cheery as well.
- Kenichi is a complete idiot hero. For example, one of his masters takes his to train with the student of a jiujitsu master who happens to be a 12-year old boy. Said boy promptly whoops him by exploiting leverage, terrain, and other factors, and they decide to have a rematch in one week. Does Kenichi learn anything about strategy from this? Nope. He just trains even more at night to catch up.
- Played for drama and deconstructed with Suzaku from Code Geass. At the beginning of the series, he's a Wide Eyed Idealist Ace Pilot who wants to change the Britannian Empire to help the "Elevens" (that's Japanese people, by the way). Unfortunately for him, he's living in a world full of Manipulative, Magnificent Bastard-ly hams, so he gets used by anyone and everyone for their own ends, including to crash other peoples' plans. Since he's nowhere near as smart as the other people he's trying to deal with, he gets in the way of things that would really have furthered his goal faster, more effectively, and in some cases even with less bloodshed. And then the Diabolus Ex Machina hits...
- Senou Natsuru is one HELL of an idiot when it comes to his harem. A date with Shizuku? Thought it was a plan for luring out some enemy kampfers. A childhood friend wearing a Hadaka Apron? He gave her his clothes. Just about ANYTHING he does borders on idiocy. Now if this were the light novels or the manga...
- Just about every hero in works by Mitsuru Adachi (most famous works include Touch,H2,Miyuki,CrossGame) would be labeled under the "Lovable Idiot" category. Though they often act like Idiot Jerks they're actually quite smart and tend to be sarcastic and smart mouthed.
Comics
- Flaming Carrot from the eponymous Flaming Carrot Comics, actually described in his origin story as "quintessentially retarded". Surprisingly, for some people he's actually a mentor and on occasion it even gives him the "superpower" of Zen Stupidity.
- Enemies of the Green Lantern Corps attempted to discredit them by giving counterfeit power rings to several idiots. One of those idiots, a G'newtain named G'nort, uncovered their plot and helped defeat them. He was rewarded with membership in the real Green Lantern Corps.
- His Batman The Brave And The Bold version takes this even farther, as he got his (admittedly unimportant) job in the corps because of his uncle and could only remember The Oath with a cheat sheet.
- The Tick
- Groo the Wanderer. ("What did you mean, 'slow of mind'?")
Films
- Forrest Gump. He actually appears to succeed because of his idiocy, or rather, because it never seems to occur to him to do anything other than the Right Thing by traditional standards. He becomes a decorated war hero just by trying to save his Army buddy Bubba. His shrimping business succeeds only because a hurricane has sunk every boat in the harbor but his; it is strongly implied this is because Gump has been going to church lately and got God on his side. Other characters who do not share his conventional morality, and explore alternative values and lifestyles as so many Americans did in the 1960s and '70s, act like total bastards and/or make fools of themselves. Even the good-hearted Jenny succumbs to Death By Sex, since she gets AIDS. (In real life people like Gump might live happily, but they almost never become rich save by inheritance.)
- Wikus van de Merwe from District 9. Let's just say that none of his boneheaded decisions throughout the film are out of character.
Literature
Live Action TV
- A dramatic example of an Idiot Hero can be found in Peter Petrelli of Heroes. He's technically the most powerful character in the show, but the writers have accidentally made him Too Powerful To Live. However this is balanced out by his naiveness and overly trusting nature which ends up getting him and others into a lot of trouble. For example, in Season 2, Knight Templar Adam tricks him into releasing a virus that could wipe out mankind (though Peter isn't aware of it) and despite many characters including people he is close to telling him Adam was evil, he refused to believe them simply because he just could not fathom the idea of Adam being evil simply because he helped him.
- This is somewhat justified in-character, as his powers seem to be directly connected to his extremely strong empathy. Hiro acts similar, in that he is an enormously powerful character who acts bizarre because of his childlike nature. In Season 1, we see a version of his character that has matured and Taken A Level In Badass, and it's one of the best plot points.
- J.D. of Scrubs is pretty much Book Dumb in anything that has nothing to do with medicine.
- Kenji in Madan Senki Ryukendo, who manages to live only because he has dumb luck and far too much power.
Mythology
- Thor thanks to being depicted by skalds who preferred Odin to warriors who preferred Thor.
- Thor is this to a T. In the Lokasenna, nobody is able to successfully rebut Loki's insults until Thor shows up and just keeps waving his hammer at him til he runs away. He solves virtually every other problem he encounters this way.
- The mythological Hercules doesn't fit the trope, but a lot of modern interpretations do. Probably because the writers Did Not Do The Research (although in the case of the Marvel Comics version of Hercules, it appears the writer has done the research, but thinks Hercules makes a better protagonist when he's a cheerful idiot.
- Well, the stupidity may come from Hercules's REALLY weird actions sometimes... Like, he gets too hot, so he fires arrows AT THE SUN. (Does nothing.) Or once the waves are rocking his ship too much, so he leans over the side and TELLS THE WAVES HE WILL WHIP THEM if they don't stop. (They don't.) He also does a lot dick moves and is generally too nice( except when he goes nuts and slaughters people) but he's not stupid so much as... Cloudcuckoolander.
- In the biblical book of Judges, Samson is an archetype of the super-strong fighter who makes a habit of acting without thinking. He's most blatantly an Idiot Hero when he lets Delilah talk him into revealing the secret of his strength.
Theatre
- Siegfried from Richard Wagner's Ring cycle is told that he has to learn fear and is embarassed that he appears too stupid to learn it, which makes this Older Than Radio.
- The title character in Wagner's Parsifal (Percival) is a "pure fool" who can only be enlightened by understanding others' suffering.
Video Games
- Jimmy Hopkins from Bully. Although he seems to wise up as the game progresses.
- Andy from the two first Advance Wars games.
- Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia, who really takes the Idiot Hero → Fool → Messiah evolution to a whole new level of exaggeration, insofar as he actually sprouts wings near the end of the game.
- Another Tales Series protagonist: Luke fon Fabre. Although he becomes a better person after his Important Haircut he still has plenty of moments that prompt someone, usually Tear, to tell him that he's an idiot.
- But before that, Tales Series has its own first Idiot Hero in form of country-bumpkin Stahn Aileron. His genes of Idiot Hero is passed down to his son Kyle Dunamis.
- Adell from the second Disgaea game. Adell is far from an idiot in most matters that don't conflict with his Honor Before Reason out-look on life... but — as noted by Rozalin in the page quote — having that outlook seems practically suicidal, given that he is the only human left in a world overrun by demons. This makes him both a perfect, defining example of this trope and a subversion of it at the same time, if that makes sense. He has proven capable of providing great insight, and can solve complex Geopuzzles within seconds without even thinking too hard, which astounds his most recent friends (who thought of him as a more archetypical idiot). He even lampshades this himself a few times: it's not that he doesn't see the problems with his approach to things, it's that his code of honor won't let him do anything other than formally challenging his enemies head-on, so he puts those problems out of his mind and proceeds on faith. Also worth noting is that Adell is the Only Sane Man of the game, and he knows it.
- Some people tend to forget Gameplay And Story Segregation and assume that Adell intended to challenge one of the Nippon Ichiverse's most powerful Overlords, despite himself being only Level 1. This ignores the fact that, storywise, he's already searched for Zenon all over Veldime, which is populated by an endless variety of dangerous monsters. And when he couldn't find Zenon, he went back all over Veldime to ''hunt'' those monsters for the ingredients necessary to summon the Overlord. Despite being only human, he was so good at fighting before the game started that his family is surprised when he is defeated in a Hopeless Boss Fight. Of course, Adell probably still wasn't strong enough to defeat the demon hailed as "God of All Overlords".
- And in that same hopeless boss fight, storywise (that is, regardless of your levels at the time), Adell was strong enough to deflect a rather sizable blast from a demon stronger than some overlords (Level 1500). Adell has some strength to backup his will.
- Gameplay And Story Segregation doesn't work when there's No Fourth Wall, and characters' specific in-game levels are used as plot points. Adell is mocked in-game and as part of character exposition for not going the long route of levelling up properly before trying to challenge Zenon. This is a story where one character hacks her profile page to name herself "Beauty Queen" instead of "Demon Lord".
- Junpei Iori from Persona 3. One of the rare non-central protagonist cases.
- Atsuma from Enchanted Arms.
- Yuri from Shadow Hearts and its sequel. Deviates from the norm in that he's a Badass who also serves as a Lampshade Hanging Straight Man to the inherent weirdness of the Shadow Hearts universe.
- I really don't think Yuri is an idiot hero in any sense. Joachim (Shadow hearts Covenant) and Frank (pretty much an expy of Joachim in Shadow Hearts From The New world) play it straight, however.
- Beat from The World Ends With You. Example: After discovering a box with a button on it, Beat happily presses it, despite knowing it was left by the main antagonists. Neku puts it best when he says "I think they design traps like this with you in mind."
- There's also the manner of his death, when he tried to save his sister from a speeding car by jumping in front of her to shield her from the impact. Even he admits that this one was pretty stupid.
- Forget what you've heard about Flonne... Heart Aino from Arcana Heart is the naive Love Freak dialled up to eleven.
- Fire Emblem tapdances this line with Hector (Seven) and Ike (Nine and Ten). Neither is a true idiot, but are heavily reliant on others to come up with strategies. Ike at least knows to ask for help. Hector just keeps suggesting to rush in head first.
- Roger Wilco from Space Quest isn't the sharpest tool in the janitor closet. The only reason he manages to momentarily escape his janitorial vocation in Space Quest 5 is because he cheats on a test and a mouse chews up the wires in the test's scoring computer.
- Bartz Klauser from Final Fantasy V a very gung-ho, idealistic hero who rarely (if ever) thinks things through and who, among his famous feats, is typically outwitted by a turtle. Granted, it's a very ancient turtle, but a turtle nonetheless.
- Lyner Barsett of Ar Tonelico, in both general intelligence and romance. In an early part of the game, upon being told by a companion that he will have to learn Item Crafting to defeat enemies immune to physical attacks, he protests, "But I can do it if I just put my spirit into it!" In keeping with the trope, he becomes The Messiah by the end of the game, having united the world's various divided factions he's met throughout his journey and even convincing Mir to give up her plans to Kill All Humans.
- Yuna Kagurazaka, lead character of Galaxy Fraulein Yuna. This is particularly noteworthy in the first game, where Elner is frequently chiding her for getting distracted or not using her head; Yuna mostly matures out of it later on.
- Jack from Radiata Stories.
- The hero from Adventure Quest is kind of a moron most of the time. This is pretty much entirely due to the Rule Of Funny, but it gets a little weird when a mage with 200 intellect is falling for Zorbak's latest zany scheme.
- Lan from Mega Man Battle Network.
- Notable in that he occasionally need to be reminded how to fight. After saving the world.
- Resident Evil's Steve. While he lasted, anyway.
- Edy Nelson from Valkyria Chronicles is this, surprisingly enough. In her DLC, she and a small detachment get separated from the squad because she went Leeroy Jenkins on the Imperials. As it turns out, most of the squad were scattered, so Welkin orders all those separated to regroup, but when she heard that Imperial forces were attacking a nearby village she tells the group with her to attack, ignoring the fact that the enemy has tanks and their group only has Jann. Later, she hears that Rosie got shot so she ran across the battlefield just to make sure she's okay, afterwards claiming that she did that because she can't let anything happen to Rosie until she surpassed her on the stage.
- Crash from Crash Bandicoot.
- Nikki from Mana Khemia Alchemists Of Alrevis. She's not too idiotic, but very impulsive. She also has Idiot Hair that seems to "overreact" as much as she does...
- The titular character of upcoming game DeathSpank has been described as a combination of this and a Destructive Savior.
- Sanada Yukimura from Sengoku Basara is young, naive, and very Hot Blooded. He rarely thinks things through or comes up with battle strategies, which results in getting punched repeatedly by his master. However he does mature somewhat throughout the series.
- In spite of the quote above, Link is a subversion when he might appear to qualify at all: while there's plenty of swordplay in Zelda games, the meat of the experience is puzzle solving, whether getting past obstacles or figuring out the trick to the Boss Battle.
- Bowser in Mario And Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story plays the role of an Idiot Villain Protagonist prone to incredible moments of baffling stupidity. However he usually manages to bounce back (usually thanks to Mario and Luigi working their magic inside his body) and turn an Idiot Ball into an opportunity for a Crowning Moment Of Awesome or a Crowning Moment Of Funny.
Web Animation
- Stinkoman, from the Homestar Runner 20X6 setting, can be seen as a parody of this character type.
- It's entirely possible that Homestar Runner himself started off as one of these when he was first created. However, character development exaggerated the idiot part while diminishing the "hero" part. He's still a well-meaning guy, if thoughtless.
Web Comics
- Walky from It's Walky! starts out this way, though he's later revealed as both a Genius Ditz and a Super Soldier.
- Fighter McWarrior.
- Elan from The Order of the Stick, even after he Took A Level In Badass.
- Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer, has some tendencies towards this trope at times, especially in his own adventures.
- SOME tendencies? He's trying to find and stop the Weasel Queen. He finds a woman with weasel ears and a throne. Conclusion? She must be a damsel in distress! Othar is Too Dumb To Live in the Girl Genius world. It's a good thing he's also the Determinator.
- It varies. In the GG comics, Othar isn't The Hero. He's barely A Hero. He's comic relief, and he's dumb to serve the Rule Of Funny. In the twitter adventures, Othar is the hero, and he's written as fairly confident and clever, only getting into scrapes because he's a sparky Gentleman Adventurer.
- Torg from Sluggy Freelance. He Took A Level In Badass as well, and does smart stuff sometimes... but reverts right back. Bun-bun can't decide whether it's an act.
- The real answer is probably one he has practically given himself: he doesn't like to think and prefers to avoid it. When he actually makes the effort, though, the results are either as good as for anyone else or downright brilliant in a weird kind of way.
- Karn from Adventurers! and the nameless hero from RPG World are practically clones of each other.
- Lance from Gold Coin Comics
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- Link from Zelda Comic is portayed as this.
Western Animation
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