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Lawful Stupid Chaotic Stupid
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alt title(s): Lawful Stupid; Stupid Good; Stupid Evil Always consider alignment as a tool, not a straitjacket that restricts the character.
A character who does things that don't make any sense, just because it's a "good" or "evil" thing to do. It's not that they've lost their goal - they're actually true to their good or evil alignment, but at the cost of every survival mechanism developed by humanity.
This goes way beyond being a Slave To PR or Card Carrying Villain. Nor is any of these characters a Knight Templar. A Knight Templar is not Lawful Stupid, but rather Lawful Neutral or Lawful Evil - with fanatical devotion to the word of law and absolutely no concern for the spirit.
Lawful Stupid - "How dare you break the traffic laws! Taste steel, fiend!"
Also known as Lawful Anal, these people often call themselves Lawful Good, but seem to completely forget about the "Good" part. Rather, they lean toward such rigid adherence to the law that anybody who breaks any law, anywhere, is the enemy. Even saying an unkind word to someone is an act of utter evil, and the Lawful Stupid can and will act as judge, jury, and executioner. They refuse to hide from even overwhelming threats, and believe that letting evil win in any sort of way (by, say, helping the village to retreat from the advancing dark army) is against their alignment.
Woe be to the fellow party member who fails to live up to their almost obsessive-compulsive standards. If the thief so much as jaywalks, Mr. Lawful Stupid will insist on turning him in to the "proper authorities" (regardless of what alignment said authorities actually are), or perhaps even execute him on the spot. Then he'll berate the other members of his
party for "condoning" the thief's behavior, and may turn on them as well. This makes this guy highly irritating, to the point where despite usually calling themselves Lawful Good, they look a lot like Lawful Evil.
In tabletop roleplaying games, it's apparently such a common behavior for paladins (see Leeroy Jenkins) that it seems this is what everyone expects paladins to do these days. When one person attempted to play a "rather quiet, unassuming sort" of paladin, they ended up losing their character sheet because all the other players expected them to do stupid things.
In fact, it's so common that the Dungeons And Dragons Sourcebook Book of Exalted Deeds spends a good number of pages explaining how to be Lawful Good without being a total dimwit. The creators themselves got sick of it.
Lawful Stupid characters often also hold very reactionary attitudes, such as that women should Stay In The Kitchen.
Stupid Good - "Stop picking on those poor, defenseless hellspawn!"
The Messiah taken to its illogical extreme, this type of character stands in contrast to the smite-happy Lawful Stupid. The Stupid Good character is a friend to all living things, unliving things, Always Chaotic Evil things, and so forth. In short, the type who would Save The Villain no matter how many
dogs he kicked raped.
This often extends to such utter pacifism that they refuse to kill or attack anything. They'll attempt to talk down the enemy even as they're charging with swords drawn, howling for their heads. This is the kind of person who would, against all logic, attempt to convince the devil himself that his evil crusade is wrong and that he and his
good counterpart should resolve their differences with a kind word and a handshake. And then gets angry when the logical result happens and the Stupid Good moron ends up as a red stain on the wall.
The other players often see this kind of character as a nuisance, as well, especially if they just want to crack some heads and she won't let them because she doesn't want to make orphans of the ' cute little baby orcs'. Of course, given the pacifistic nature of Stupid Good, this often amounts to little more than finger-wagging and threatening to cry. These
other players should beware though, for occasionally the Stupid Good character is pushed too far and descends into Lawful Stupid mode, calling the party 'evil' for wanting to steal treasure from the ' nice monsters'.
This is, of course, not the way to play a paladin either. They do get those weapon proficiencies and smiting powers for a reason, after all. Suffice to say, though, there are a few settings where this kind of play actually works. Of course, such settings also tend to be so idealistic they crap rainbows and/or home to a blatant Mary Sue.
If becoming good results in Stupid Good, see Good Is Dumb or Dumb Is Good.
Stupid Evil - "CRUSH! KILL! DESTROY!"
The logical extreme of the Obviously Evil™ motif. This isn't just the person who will Kick The Dog, this is the person who kills the dog, pees on it, then fries it up and serves it to the owner. Assuming they don't let their "tadpoles" loose, If You Know What I Mean. Except that requires too much work, so they just kill the dog and beat the owner to death with the dog's corpse. These are the people who seem to think having an evil alignment means doing nothing but evil every waking moment, even out in broad daylight. Like, say, stabbing a peasant for no reason other than you were bored. If the other party members are lucky, this sociopathic behavior will extend solely to the NPCs. If the other party members are lucky. The Stupid Evil character is frequently the type who will betray and murder his teammates on the flimsiest of pretenses (even if he'd gain no advantage in doing so), simply because it's EEEEEEVIL.
Oh, and they get angry when they have to suffer consequences for their actions, like guards and bounty hunters after them. If a Stupid Evil person has a choice between accepting a reward for accidentally finding a dog or killing the reward giver they'll choose killing. (Somehow figuring out how to do both usually requires systematic patience and intelligence that isn't part of being Stupid, although if there's no real benefit to doing so, or that effort could be better spent doing something else, can still fall under this category.)
Similarly, the D&D sourcebook Book of Vile Darkness spent a good while detailing how to run an evil character without being a mass-murdering lunatic; but it does give tips for that, too, since even cartoon supervillainy has its place.
Sadly, if a Computer RPG offers an "evil" path, it's usually Stupid Evil, and it involves committing completely random acts of violence just to get those precious Karma Meter points. Only relatively recently did they start adding options for players who want to play sneaky evil characters, with opportunities to manipulate other characters into doing your bidding, or even pulling a Xanatos Gambit.
Chaotic Stupid - "I drop my trousers and whiz on the king!"
There is a subtle distinction between Stupid Evil and Chaotic Stupid. Sure, the Chaotic Stupid character is also likely to Kick The Dog. But he's just as likely to Pet The Dog, Shave The Dog, Paint The Dog Purple, or even Ignore The Dog Entirely To Run Off Chasing Butterflies. In short, the 'true' Chaotic Stupid character is the one who thinks that being Chaotic Neutral means being batshit insane. And by "insane", we mean more Looney Tunes than Hannibal Lecter.
This guy is willing to prove his madness at any time he feels it needs proving, which is all the time. Expect all sorts of "wacky hijinx" from talking in Word Salad to annoying important NPCs with stupid jokes (as well as the other players). While a little comic relief can be refreshing once in a while, the Chaotic Stupid character takes it to a level which threatens to turn the entire game into a farce, or even gets the other party members killed. Suffice to say, the Chaotic Stupid should never be let within ten feet of any sort of magic, especially the type that can be exploded in the middle of the party for multiple d6s of damage.
Often overlaps with The Loonie, a player archetype from the famed Munchkin Files. Needless to say, several player's handbooks have attempted to dissuade clueless players of the notion that chaos is a blank check to loosen their screws. One once said of the Chaotic Neutral alignment, "Remember that the chaotic neutral character may be unpredictable, but his behavior is not totally random. He is not as likely to jump off a bridge as to cross it." Some people just didn't get the memo, though. It should be noted of Chaotic Stupid that in Second Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Chaotic Neutral was described as the alignment of lunatics and madmen—but even this was not described as Chaotic Stupid.
Stupid Neutral - "Good, they're both dead. The Balance has been preserved."
Some True Neutral people are devoted to the Balance Between Good And Evil - They fight only because the forces of darkness grow too strong. The problem comes when they become militantly neutral; so devoted to not taking sides that they lash out against both Good and Evil without distinguishing between friend or foe. This usually takes the form of always siding with the underdog; the moment one side gains the upper hand, they'll pull a Face Heel Turn to make sure both sides are 'equal'. This can lead to a very unreliable fellow and a Wild Card whose misguided morals lead his former allies to cut him down despite his protests that he was only following his heart.
Stupid Neutral people tend to think of morality as balancing a metaphysical checkbook; any evil deed can be 'cancelled out' by commiting an equally good deed. No remorse or atonement is needed; to these people, there is no Moral Event Horizon past which their actions cannot be forgiven by good works. In short, these people are the types who will build an orphanage and then 'balance it out' by burning down the orphanage across the street. This pattern of kicking the dog and then stopping to pet it immediately afterwards just results in a very confused dog... and a very confused audience.
This type of 'stupid neutral' may occur in Video Games with a Karma Meter that offers no middle ground between 'cackling villain' and 'absolute saint'. So the 'neutral' route, if it even exists, ends up consisting of doing enough good and evil deeds (with no regards to common sense or reason) to balance the meter in the middle.
For more on Lawful Stupid and Chaotic Stupid, check out the LJ post by The Ferrett in which he introduced the terms. However, note that his definition of Chaotic Stupid is closer to our usage of Stupid Evil.
Examples of Lawful Stupid / Stupid Good:]]
- As mentioned above, Leeroy Jenkins - both the original and the stereotype he spawned.
- In the Sailor Moon anime, Sailor Moon actually offers the Big Bad of Sailor Moon S the MacGuffin she wanted all along to destroy the world because she refuses to sacrifice anyone. The show actually acknowledges how dangerous this gambit was when the Sailors who were less than thrilled with the world coming so close to assured destruction attacked her after the battles were over. In Sailor Stars she does the same thing for that series' Big Bad, though by the time she actually has to confront her, it is after the Big Bad has killed her entire Sailor Team in combat. It actually works in her universe, but had it been slightly less on the idealistic side of the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism, she would have just pointlessly died and failed to save the world in the process.
- The ending of Tenchi In Tokyo has Tenchi act in a similar way. As with Sailor Moon, it works because the world is set up that way. This is one of the reasons the show is not as popular as other Tenchi series, as even Tenchi isn't treated as that much of a pushover.
- Silverbolt in Transformers: Beast Wars is another example of how it's possible to get by with being Lawful Stupid by being stupid lucky (not as an alignment, just "lucky to the point of absurdity"). For instance, he actually helped Blackarachnia open up a tunnel leading to the in-stasis Autobots from the original cartoon.
- Alice from Pumpkin Scissors.
- Mackenzie the half-demon, from Tales Of MU,
despite because of demons being stereotyped as Stupid Evil. She's getting better, though.
- Her Superpowered Evil Side is even more Stupid Evil than her normal self was ever Stupid Good. I guess there is some truth to the stereotype.
- Miko Miyazaki in the webcomic The Order Of The Stick is part Lawful Stupid, part Knight Templar, and occasionally parodies both. This strip is a good example of the former.
- Hinjo, and apparently most of the other paladins of the Sapphire Guard, are subversions, as they act normally, rationally, and without being condescending. They also don't like Miko, and she is sent on away missions so they don't have to deal with her. ("often for months at a time")
- Likewise, Roy, the leader of the titular Order is Lawful Good but very savvy and originally willing to use trickery in the service of the greater good. (And attracted to Miko until he realizes how Lawful Stupid and spiteful she is.) Later in the series, he is rebuked by a lawful good angel for being willing to use such underhanded methods.
- In the same breath, though, the angel commends him because in spite of his tendency to use Chaotic means to achieve Lawful ends, he keeps trying to stick to being Lawful Good, that, since he's not a being of pure Law and Good like said angel, it's not even remotely reasonable to expect him to be able to behave like one all the time. In short, Roy, like Sam Vimes, is an example of how to play Lawful Good without playing Lawful Stupid.
- If it's possible to deconstruct a way some people play Lawful Good in an RPG, Miko is it.
- In the print edition of the comic ("No Cure for the Paladin Blues") Rich Burlew, the author of The Order Of The Stick, writes in his commentary about Miko that this was intended. See chapter 5:
Rich Burlew: Miko Miyazaki may be the single most controversial character I have yet created for OOTS. Within days of her introduction, fans were beginning to chose sides as being pro-Miko, anti-Miko, anti-anti-Miko, or what have you. I can't take credit for all of this; the paladin is perhaps the most controversial character class in the game. People feel strongly about paladins - they either love them or hate them, with few occupying the middle ground. Personally, while there is always a place for the shining knight in fantasy roleplaying, I believe that the class as written actually encourages a type of dysfunction within roleplaying groups. I think of it as the Police Syndrome, wherein one player feels entitled by the rules to actively police the other members of his or her group. [...] In many ways, Miko Miyazaki is the incarnation of those hard feelings. [...] Miko is also the result of me asking myself: "Can a Lawful Good character be the villain - and still be lawful good?" [...] There was a general outcry about how Miko wasn't the only possible way to portray a paladin that lasted some time, to which I say: Well, obviously. [...] Miko is not the one and only way to play a paladin; if anything, she's one of the WORST ways to play a paladin. [...] Miko is a person who has been raised in a strict military society believing that she was given the power of the gods to punish evil, with very little of her extensive training devoted to social interaction or manners. [...] The very concept that other people don't need to do as they're told is foreign to her, which is how her Lawfulness most strongly represents itself.
- Celia has recently become increasingly Flanderized as a Stupid Good Pollyanna, though she does at least have enough sense to fight when she or her friends are in imminent danger.
- On the other hand, Celia's reaction to the unnecessary killing of orcs could be interpreted as being the Only Sane Man; she reacts like a real person to real deaths, not like an RPG character. Her inability to recognise that Greysky City is completely evil is another matter, though...
- Celia's Stupid Good tendencies were subverted in this strip with her rather ruthless reason for not wanting to abandon Belkar.
- Ranma Saotome of Ranma 1/2. His father tricks his mother into relinquishing Baby Ranma to go on a permanent training mission without "female influences" to "weaken him" by making Baby Ranma put his toddler handprint on a contract. At age 16, Ranma discovers the existence of the contract, which will compel him to commit suicide by disemboweling himself if he is judged not to be a "man among men". And at the time he has a curse that turns him into a girl on occasion, too. So he hides from his mother, but if called on the matter appears ready to actually go through with it.
- One rather cruel example can crop up if you have the paladin Keldorn in your party in the D&D-based game Baldur's Gate II. If you accept his offer to visit his home, you'll find that his wife has been cheating on him out of loneliness and concern for their children, as Keldorn is always off crusading. The most obvious thing to do is to let him follow the 'lawful' path and report his wife's infidelity to the authorities, which results in her permanent incarceration, the execution of her lover, and his two daughters hating him forever. Keldorn himself is more than happy enough to take a 'good' alternative that involves talking with the lover (who willingly steps down if Keldorn faces him) and reconciling with his family - although this causes him to leave the party.
- The player does not have to actually lose Keldorn, by giving him a day with his family and then asking him back into the party. On the other hand, Keldorn rejects the idea that one of the members of your party, a drow, can be redeemed and will eventually fight with her.
- The game has a traditional example in Anomen, who vies for paladinhood and won't shut up about how far above everything else this places him. Compare:
Anomen: A dank cesspool of base corruption if ever there was one. Why, if not for the Order, the Gods would surely smite man for such sins!
Keldorn: Where men gather, a bustle of chaos ensues. I would save them all, if I could.
- Note that this distinction is highlighted when Keldorn and Anomen are together in your party. Intra-party dialogue will often have Keldorn lecturing Anomen on his arrogantly narrow and unforgiving brand of goodness. Whether Anomen humbly learns from the example or just becomes more of a stubborn hardass is influenced by the player. If he goes too far down that second path and fails forever to attain paladinhood, he can become straight-up evil out of resentment. Eventually he and Keldorn will try to kill each other.
- The enormous Ranger Minsc deserves a honorable mention, but doesn't fit on this article's scale. After too many blows to the head he's good and stupid separately.
Minsc: Evil, meet my sword! Sword! Meet! Evil!!
- Planescape describes "lawful over good" approach as a characteristic of entire plane of Arcadia (between LG and LN). It's primary plane of influence of the Harmonium faction. AD&D Player's guide to the Planes:
...the Harmonium believes that peace is a better end than war. [...] If it takes thumping heads to spread the truth, well, the Harmonium's ready to thump heads. Sure, there may not be peace right away, but every time the Harmonium gets rid of an enemy, the multiverse is that much closer to the universal harmony it was meant to have.
- "Elder Evils", a book from the 3.5 edition of Dungeons And Dragons, features a canonical example of a Lawful Stupid alignment in the form of Obilgatum VII, an extraplanar robot who wants to free the sentient Weapon Of Mass Destruction/Cosmic Horror Pandorym. Is it because Obligatum is a Omnicidal Maniac? No, it's actually because the
dumbasses wizards who called the thing to the material plane in the first place were somewhat deceptive. Obligatum is presented as an enemy of the party, because he is one of a clockwork race called the Inevitables, whose sole function of existence is to keep the multiverse running according to law. His specific division enforces major contracts. The wizards in question made quite a major contract with Pandorym, then broke it by imprisoning it for umpteen aeons and preventing it from completing its own end of killing all gods...or even returning from whence it came. Ironically, there's another, far more powerful branch of the Inevitables that would take a very dim view of what Pandoryrm was contracted to do in the first place. However, since the gods took it into their own hands to smite the idiot mages who started the whole thing, they didn't have to act...at least at that time. The scenario presented makes no mention of this branch of the race coming into conflict with Obligatum; presumably there is an override to prevent a race war between them where they never interfere with the business of another Inevitable if it is "first to the scene"?
- The Forgotten Realms setting has a minor goddess called the Red Knight, whose alignment allows her to have paladins. The Red Knight is the goddess of the strategic, planning, and tactical side of war. If this is not intended to be a subversion of the Lawful Stupid trope, I don't know what is.
- A more straight version of the trope is Kelemvor Lionsbane, the god of the dead. He's supposed to be a good guy, and an improvement over his predecessor. And indeed, he does not go out murdering mortals for the pleasure of it; he instead sees to it that all pass in their time. But then there's this wall in his domain, called the Wall of the Faithless. Whomsoever dies without having worshiped a god (even just paying lip service, though they get their own punishment, as being False) has his soul merge with the wall, slowly destroying him until there's no mind or personality left, a fate worse than death. People who live in areas where there is no religion featuring gods to worship are bound to end up there - even if they have no other option. You can give money to the poor, make clothes for the orphans, be the nicest person around, and if you do not worship a god, you're just another brick in the wall in the end. Same goes for followers of Ao the Overgod, though he is specifically mentioned as not responding to either mortal or deity. Kelemvor does nothing about the wall, accepting its Disproportionate Retribution. He could replace the wall with something less horrible, he just chooses not to. The jerk is clearly biased in favor of god-worship.
- The Ancients, infamous Neglectful Precursors from Stargate SG-1, would rather let the galaxy be conquered by Scary Dogmatic Aliens (who would then promptly turn on them) or, worse yet, have all life eradicated by replicating killer robots, than violate their Prime Directive of non-intervention. Also note how they "justified" descending Daniel Jackson yet letting Anubis remain half-ascended.
- They justified letting Anubis hang on to Ancient powers and knowledge as a punishment for Omala Desala, whom he had tricked into helping him ascend (helping others ascend being an Ancient no-no). So they're not just Lawful Stupid, they're maliciously vindictive.
- Prior to the Book of Exalted Deeds, 2nd edition D&D had The Complete Paladin's Handbook. While it admitted that the notion of a paladin-king is romantic, but rare because rulership often requires compromising personal ideals, it also covered territory in how not to be Lawful Stupid. In one example, a paladin finds himself unfortunately (and by his own free will) bound to serve three commands of an evil priest. In the first, the priest tries to get information on those who oppose him, leading the paladin to respond with a whole lot of half-answers, culminating in the priest insisting "if you tell me nothing, I will assume I'm correct" and the paladin simply replying "you may assume whatever you wish." Finally, the priest sends the paladin to bring back the head of a nobleman, his most hated enemy. The paladin returns with the nobleman's head. And the rest of him, all in one piece. With a couple hundred men-at-arms, none of whom are too happy with the priest.
- Many of Piers Anthony's protagonists are Lawful Stupid. Doing the "honorable" thing is more important to them than stopping the villain. If they were tricked into giving their word of honor on something then they will keep their word, even if it means allowing the villain to commit evil acts.
- This was subverted in the Mode series, when the villain made a deal where he would let the heroes go free, if they agreed not to stop him. When the leader of the heroes accepted, he blindly believed the hero, because he knew that honor meant everything to him. Honor meant absolutely nothing to the main character and her super intelligent psionic horse, who went along with the plan, and then betrayed the villain the moment they were out of his realm.
- In the Author's Note to one of his books, Anthony defends his characters' Lawful Stupidity as being the right thing to do. In fact, the specific example he was defending was Grey Murphy's willingness to become the evil Com Pewter's servant (if he hadn't found a loophole in his contract), which was a particularly egregious Warped Aesop since it wasn't even Grey who made the promise. It was his parents. Then it turns out that Grey's ultimate resolution to the problem is to reprogram Com Pewter against his will. Failing to honor promises you didn't make is wrong, but brainwashing is fine? Er, okay...
- Mentioned in The Wotch: Anne, you have permission to strike before the heroic banter next time.
- Kore the Dwarven Paladin from Goblins takes this to an extreme - he kills anyone who even has contact with evil out of fear that the taint will lead them to become evil themselves. The fact that he somehow still manages to keep his paladin powers, even though he's taking Lawful Stupid so far that he's actually evil is foreshadowed as a major plot point.
- Also from Goblins, but in quite a different flavor, you have Fumbles, who becomes so desperate to "make things right" (after he does something very, very wrong) that he lets his sense of justice completely overthrow his sense of survival. And get it in a headlock. And while Fumbles starts off with the idea that he can do it without involving the rest of his team, the comic is very good about showing that his actions have long-lasting consequences, and affect everyone he cares about, in large part because they also care about him.
- And yet again from Goblins, Big Ears the paladin manages to avert this nicely, which is rare for a paladin, as they are usually flanderized into one of these if they don't start out as one. He instead follows instead closely to what a lawful good paladin should be.
- Kathryn Janeway of Star Trek Voyager has occasionally been Lawful Stupid. Several times she has refused to take an opportunity to get the ship home because it would require going against the "values" of the Federation. This isn't always a bad thing, mind - the Federation was envisioned as a near-idealistic society, so it would have some values worth keeping to - but it grated on some viewers after a while. And, of course, if she had, the show would have been over. Was Lampshaded in an episode, where a holographic simulation shows the Maquis taking over Voyager, because of their frustration over Janeway's Lawful Stupid tendencies. In "Madame Captain's" defense, though, the Prime Directive seemed to require Lawful Stupidity of Starfleet officers.
- Eddard Stark from A Song Of Ice And Fire is bound by an inflexible code of honor. It doesn't feel as egregious as might be normal, though. His flaw, in the end, wasn't his code of honor, but his belief that other people are better or more honest than they actually are and that they can be shamed into doing the right thing; he's willing to do the right thing, no matter how hard that may actually be.
- Dragonball Z's Goku: The only Big Bad he didn't let live (Vegeta), offer to spare (Radditz, Capt. Ginyu, Frieza), or use a Dragonball wish to redeem (Buu) was Cell - and even Cell got a free senzu bean. Which he makes up for by nearly letting Cell beat Gohan to death (despite having first hand knowledge that Gohan's Berserk Button was seeing his loved ones in danger, not his own peril).
- Pretty ironic, since he did pile up the corpses in early Dragonball (not Z). Children Are Innocent indeed.
- Somehow, though, Goku usually seems to inadvertently benefit from his Lawful Stupidity. For example, if he hadn't gotten himself killed by his foolish offer to Radditz, he wouldn't have been able to come back much stronger to fight Vegeta on equal terms. And after he spared Vegeta, the latter gradually did a Heel Face Turn to become one of Goku's strongest allies. Basically, if Goku had been smarter, the bad guys would've won quite early.
- The other characters tend to notice Goku's Lawful Stupidity, though. While Gohan was getting the living crap beaten out of him, Piccolo literally screamed at Goku to take Gohan's place in the fight before his unrealistic expectations of his son's strength got him killed. Indeed, Goku very nearly does, but Cell, being the masochist that he is, decides to start killing Gohan's friends as a way to get him angry enough to fight back.
- In Twenty Years After, while on the run from the Queen (who wants to throw them in the Bastille), Athos learns that d'Artagnan and Porthos have already been captured. His response is to go to the Queen and ask her to release them, which - surprise, surprise - leads to him being imprisoned too.(And that's not even mentioning the times he stops his friends from killing the villain.)
- The eighth book of the Sword Of Truth series features a culture of people that are so Stupid Good that they won't even defend themselves when The Empire invades and starts with the evaile. When the Designated Hero shows up, some of them even serve as willing human shields for the Bad Guys, because war is bad, mmkay? Too Dumb To Live doesn't even begin to cover it. Unfortunately, the author considers these people actively evil instead of tragically misguided...
- Keiichiro Wachizuka of the Last Blade series of fighting games. As a member of the Shinsengumi during the Meiji era, he often let his personal morality, a relic of the age of Samurai, get in the way of his better judgment... which wasn't that good to begin with. He's also an Arrogant Kung Fu Guy who seems to think he's never wrong.
- In Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time, Rand al'Thor - and pretty much every other male good guy - has a completely pointless code of honour about not harming a woman, no matter how evil. Which is nonsensical, since every single chapter of the series shows that the women of that world neither need nor deserve protection. This even extends to when a woman is trying to kill him...
- This is taken to such extreme that he lets his mentor and only true Aes Sedai ally GET KILLED because he refuses to kill his past self's psychotic former girlfriend (don't ask) when she becomes homicidal. Despite the fact that she is also threatening the woman he loves.
- In fairness, he couldn't have stopped her. Moiraine jumped Lanfear knowing what she was getting into and accepting it, and it is heavily implied that if he had tried to kill Lanfear himself, he would have lost and been killed by her instead. Also, I haven't reread in a while, but I recollect him thinking that (at least as applied to the particular case) his paralysis was a bug, not a feature.
- Another real life example: Cato the Younger, a Roman statesman and senator in the first century BC. So committed to the ideals and laws of the Roman Republic that he aided in its demise, by consistently blocking any and all reform, forcing radical action. Many deeds stand out, but one example: After Julius Caesar's victory in the civil war, Cato and Metellus Scipio continued the resistance in North Africa. When Caesar came to hunt them down, it was suggested that Cato, as the oldest and most experienced general there, take command. Cato refused on the grounds that he was only a praetor and wasn't of high enough rank. So the less competent Metellus Scipio took command, and the army was promptly massacred by Caesar.
- DM of the Rings lampshades this when the players refuse to act in this manner[1].
- Carrot Ironfoundersson spends a lot of time acting a textbook-version of Lawful Stupid, even going so far as to obey and/or cite laws established long ago, even or especially those that aren't enforced since they're unnecessary but are still around since no one bothered to repeal them. A lot of the time it seems he gets away with his cheerful demeanor in a city like Ankh-Morpork because of A) the sheer force of his crazy notion that everyone's basically decent underneath and B) Silverbolt-level good luck. That being said there is a lot of implication that there is far more to Carrot than meets the eye ("You'd have to be very complex to be as simple as Carrot"), and that he can turn from genially dim-witted to a wall of steel who's just asked you a question you really don't want answered in the blink of an eye. Also, if you try anything funny, he probably could kill you with his bare hands. Not that he would, but that's worth noting, even in Ankh-Morpork.
- Commander Sam Vimes, however, is one of the few different ways to successfully play Lawful Good without venturing into Lawful Stupid territory and Carrot does seem to be learning from him.
- The Trope Overdosed Tabletop Game Warhammer 40000 has a few examples of this.
- Many Chapters of Imperial Space Marines suffer from this. Some of them decry any form of stealth as cowardice; others refuse to retreat even when strategically or tactically viable out of a sense of martial pride; and others still refuse to field psykers, work alongside aliens, or even ally with anyone else at all because of deeply-held suspicions and prejudices. The Space Marines' holy book, the Codex Astartes, actually discourages this sort of behavior and contains all sorts of useful and varied tactical advice; however, adhering too closely to the Codex Astartes can cause a Chapter to enter Lawful Stupid territory from the other direction. An example of this second type is the Ultramarines, who exiled Captain Uriel Ventris and forced him to become The Atoner after he used slightly unorthodox tactics against the Tyranids.
- The Monodominant faction of the Inquisition are, as a group, fanatically devoted to the letter of Imperial law and dogma, to the point that they are considered xenophobic and reactionary even by the xenophobic and reactionary standards of the Imperium. Monodominants fervently believe that only genetically pure and religiously faithful humans deserve to exist, and that everything else - aliens, daemons, heretics, malcontents, traitors, and mutants, up to and sometimes including the psykers that the Imperium needs in order to continue functioning - needs to be killed with fire. Other Inquisitors tend to consider the Monodominants bombastic, closed-minded, and self-defeating, and note that their pogroms and witch hunts tend to bury more answers than they uncover (and, less importantly, tend to kill a lot of innocent people in the process). The Monodominants usually respond by loudly accusing their detractors of heresy and attempting to kill them (with fire).
- Adell from Disgaea 2 constantly insists on fair fights and keeping promises. This would be all well and good if it wasn't for one teensy weensy little fact: everyone within a 100 mile radius is a Genre Savvy hellspawn willing to milk this for all its worth. Rozalin spends quite a deal of time wondering how this kind of behavior hasn't killed him already.
- The opening sequence is evidence enough. Adell tries to summon the most powerful Overlord in existence to challenge him to a duel for the sake of keeping a promise. At the time he is level 1.
- Given Rozalin and more importantly Etna are reduced to level 1 by the summon that they where trying to use, it's likely it wasn't as big of a wall banger as it looks.
- It should be noted that Rozalin has no idea how to fight and has never been outside her manor in her entire life at the start of the game, so she was most likely Level 1 to begin with.
- The Gargoyles are usually quite reasonable, but one time, Goliath, faced with a mighty opponent, decided to use the Eye of Odin. The Eye magnified his power to truly awesome levels—but also magnified his nature, that of a protector and guardian, to the point where he was willing to deceive his charges by pretending there was danger when there wasn't, to ensure they stayed somewhere safe rather than moving on, even if they had nothing that could be called a life.
- Post-Time Skip Rossiu from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann becomes a little bit too zealous in his task of upholding the newly created law, much to the very great annoyance of Chaotic Good Simon. For example, he believes the Grappal are far more advanced than the Gurren Lagann and keeps telling Simon that he must rely on his Red Shirt Army instead of fighting himself, even though, being this a Super Robot show, it's bleeding obvious that Simon's Gurren Lagann is the most powerful mecha in the world.
- This seems to be more a case of Genre Blindness on his part rather than any outright Lawful Stupidity. He doesn't know he's in a Super Robot show, so the Grappal's should be more powerful than Gurren Lagann, and his other actions would make perfect sense in a universe that wasn't run on Rule Of Cool instead of physics.
- Except for the part where he refuses to acknowledge the actual relative power levels of his Grappals vs. Gurren Lagann, even after he's seen the difference graphically demonstrated right before his eyes. Operating on an incorrect initial hypothesis, that's one thing. Disregarding experimental proof, that's something else again.
- Whether you call it Lawful Stupid or not, this is actually a character trait that was established in Rossiu from his first appearance: an unwillingness to let reality interfere with what he believes, and an overall strong resistance to other viewpoints.
- From the same series, the Anti-Spirals are Lawful Evil Stupid: they insist on fighting their opponents on relatively equal terms to instill "Ultimate Despair" by always snaching vicory from their opponents in the cheapest manner possible, despite the fact that their enemies continually achieve said victory with only the slightlest chance of success.
- The Tenth Doctor is often Stupid Good, offering forgiveness
and second chances to the most dangerous and genocidal people around. It is justified by the fact that the Doctor knows the price of wiping some persons out of existence, and is specially wary of wiping out entire species (Or the last remnants of one). The thing is, no matter how wary he is, these creatures are mostly Stupid Evil and prefers one last blow at the Doctor than a chance to, you know, actually continue to exist (the Doctor usually comes with rather favorable and acceptable conditions, he really tries hard). Because when the Doctor finally takes his toll, it is often both spectacular and terrifying.
- Fate Stay/Night has the stupid good Shiro, who takes his Stay In The Kitchen attitude to the point of refusing to summon his powerful epic hero Servant to a battle against another servant in which he would surely die without her. Only a Deus Ex Machina saves him.
- While it's generally agreed that Shirou is less than bright, the "Fate/stay in the kitchen!" attitude only really applies in the Fate version of the visual novel, and the anime adaption, which is mostly based off this scenario. In the Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel scenario, Shirou is far less Stupid Good.
- In the World Of Darkness RPG Werewolf: The Apocalypse, members of the Children of Gaia tribe can be Stupid Good at times. The dichotomy of peace-loving werewolves is certainly interesting, but some of these hippies would sooner talk politics over tea with the creatures they're supposed to kill.
- On the other hand, the other Werewolf tribes tend to take Lawful Stupid to gory new heights. If they so much as think someone is tainted with the slightest bit of evil, GROWLSLASHKILLBITEMAIMKILLSLASH...
- Beatrix, and Steiner from Final Fantasy IX are supposed to be Lawful Good, but instead come off as lawful stupid, Beatrix helps The Empire destroy two cities, and massively damage a third simply because the Queen is an evil nutcase. Steiner wants to return the Rebellious Princess who wants to escape her evil mother, and doesn't seem to notice the whole evil nutcase part. It's only after the Queen attempts to kill her own daughter does Beatrix even think of rebelling, and only after the Queen nearly does so does she rebel.
- Also done in the giant tree near Freya's hometown where the residents try to talk to the Queen's soldiers into not fighting, which doesn't work since the soldiers just rush in and slice them. Somewhat justified since the residents lived in peace for years and kind of forgot how to fight since they abolished the arts of war, but even then...
- Real world example: In 1931, Henry Stimson (then Secretary of State) closed down America's Black Chamber, saying "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail."
- In fairness, he changed his mind when he became Secretary of War during World War II.
- Shame he didn't change his mind before Pearl Harbor.
- The thing is, he probably did, but still needed excuse to push the masses into accepting the war.
- Two words: Liu Bei. Worse yet, he combines it with Moral Dissonance (ironically against his own Stupid Good at times) and Values Dissonance. And he's the main protagonist for at least the first half of the book, people.
- In a different sense, Alien X from Ben 10: Alien Force—a being capable of warping time and space, but whose thought pattern has been (and in some ways still is) strangled with debate between two diametrically opposed entities to the point at which the being cannot even move until a decision can be reached.
- Xiaolin Showdown: Omi in regards to promises. At one point, Omi has to team up with one of the Big Bads to stop a race of unstoppable spiders. They do this by combining two Mac Guffins that work together to give infinite knowledge to find a way to stop them. Before doing so, the Big Bad makes him promise to only look for the way to stop them and specifically not to look for "the way to destroy evil forever". In the end, he mentions he "peeked" (apparently it's okay to break a promise but not to gain from breaking it). In later episodes the main group finds themselves in a desperate situation and begin telling him they want him to use the secret. He holds firm that he cannot because it would go against his honor as a monk even when all 3 of them think it would be better to do it anyway but he still refuses (it seems that fellowship and the fate of the world as you know it mean nothing in comparison to a small boy's moral code). The end result is as part of the Big Bad's plan, this divides him from his friends and causes him to go against their safer wishes of not listening to the villain. He ends up temporarily locked in an aggressive mood from this and pledges his allegiance to the villain. Once he returns to normal, he stays with the villain because he made that promise (ignoring his friends cries of "he wasn't himself"). In the very end they try to make it sound like Omi made the right choice by saying the Big Bad reveals that he knew Omi would peek and swapped what he saw with the secret to destroying good (they completely ignore the fact that without this, he risked everyone's lives and future suffering from evil-doers for his honor and that the world was put into peril a second time because he joined the Big Bad with a reason that equates to a promise made while drunk).
- Vash from Trigun ventures into Stupid Good territory. He's absolutely iron-willed not to ever kill anyone, even if they're coming at him in droves with guns blazing. This gets him in extremely uncomfortable circumstances until he reaches his saturation point when caught in an untenable situation, and pulls the trigger.
- Arguably Elisa from Dead Space: Downfall, Whom was more worried about saving the crew than quarantining the ship.
- Internet example: Homebrew on the Wii has been quite popular among the hardcore crowd and they complain when Nintendo releases a firmware update that blocks homebrew. The people who are against homebrew will brand the homebrew users as evil pirates that only care about stealing games and hurting Nintendo since they broke the rules, even if the homebrew user never uses homebrew to play games illegally! This in turn causes homebrew users to defend themselves and say that they all don't use homebrew to pirate games and flame the people who are defending Nintendo, which causes the defenders to hit back just as hard since in their eyes, "once a pirate, always a pirate." Hilarity Ensues.
Examples of Chaotic Stupid / Stupid Evil
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