Plot Induced Stupidity - Television Tropes & Idioms

"All I had was my trenchcoat, hat, and an unlimited supply of magical wishes. The odds were against me."

Timmy Turner, The Fairly Oddparents

"Using my superpowers, I could have easily saved myself and my friends, but I didn't react. Why? Because I smoke pot. Still think drugs are cool?"

Captain Hero, Drawn Together

When a character has the Idiot Ball slipped into their pocket while they weren't looking, causing them to forget to properly use their abilities, intelligence, or powers to stop a badguy or get out of a situation, even though they may have used the ability in similar situations before (often many times). This happens often with Superheroes and within the filler episode of Shonen anime. Of course, there's a good reason this trope exists; if the character didn't forget, the story would be over right then and there, which would be, well, boring.

This is used quite a bit when characters have extremely useful or increasingly powerful abilities or equipment, and some unfortunates tend to have this inflicted on them all the time, turning a Genius Bruiser or Badass Bookworm into a garden-variety Bruiser or Bad Ass. Only some lines of technological jargon or displays of useless gadgetry will remind the reader that they have more brains than they normally use. Its only when the plot demands it that they show us why they have their PhDs. Some might consider this a form of Informed Ability, with the 'ability' being genius-level intelligence.

Amnesia Danger is a variant of this trope, when it's justified using convenient amnesia. The heroic version of Why Dont Ya Just Shoot Him, except while at least villains don't have to answer to their actions, heroes should be obligated to stop evil-doers or disasters as quickly and efficiently as possible.

See Fridge Logic for when it sets in for the viewers as to what the character could've/should've easily done. Compare Apathy Killed The Cat, when the stupidity isn't induced, but natural.

Plot Sensitive Snooping Skills is a particular variant/sub-trope. If a device is discovered once, never becomes part of a character's standard bag of tricks, and is forgotten that is Forgotten Phlebotinum. Hollywood Tactics are a usual result.

Examples:

Nearly any situation should be easily solvable by the Flash, since he can move hundreds and hundreds of times faster than anything else on earth. Yet he constantly forgets to use the full potential of his superpowers until it's time to end the story.
- Obviously Superman suffers from the same forgetfulness both in the comics and very noticeably in Smallville, where Clark is frankly kind of a bimbo.
Similarly, Hiro Nakamura of Heroes is one of the most powerful characters in the series with the ability to stop time and teleport; he's just too much of a dork to think of using it when he needs to defend himself. This was even given a nod in the series when his friend, Ando, deliberately antagonized a group of peeved gamblers, assuming Hiro would use his power to put them all down. Hiro, not comprehending the situation, was almost immediately KO'ed by a punch to the face.
To move the plot of a typical episode of The Fairly Oddparents, either Cosmo and Wanda's magical wands are stolen, or more commonly Timmy has to stupidly forget that he is enabled to alter reality on a whim. Naturally this has been Lampshaded quite a few times. For example, the quote from above comes from the episode "Where's Wanda", in which Wanda goes missing. Timmy proceeds to turn the world into Film Noir and become a detective in order to track her down... when he could have easily just wished her back.
Similarly, there are too many times to count in Danny Phantom where Danny seemingly forgets that he has the ability to become invisible or intangible at will. Early on it made sense due to it being clear he was still getting used to his abilities, and sometimes it was played for humor, but it seemed strange he would still sometimes forget this fact even in the later episodes.
Harry Potter has some examples, which are discussed in it's Just Bugs Me page.
In the first season of Justice League, characters would regularly forget their powers. In the season finale, Brainiac is holding everyone in an iron grip with tentacles. They struggle for an unreasonable time before Martian Manhunter remembers that he can turn intangible at will.
- The Martian Manhunter is the king of this trope. He has the ability to transform into whatever Super Strong forms he can imagine - an ability he uses three times in the entire series. He'll stare at incoming projectiles with a surprised look on his face instead of turning intangible, or super solid or transforming into a form that cannot be so easily hit.
  - In the Silver Age comics, he had even more powers, with new ones popping up all the time. Somehow, he just never used them with the slightest tactical sense. As this troper's high school guidance counsellor said many times, "You have so much wasted potential!"
  - On the other hand, with powers ranging from super strength to making Ice Cream with your mind, it's hard to create conflict.
- And if you think the above examples are bad, you should watch the old Superfriends some time. "Gee, Jayna, here we are trapped under the foot of a giant space monster, touching each other. If only we had, I don't know, some kind of superpower that would allow you to turn into a small animal and me into something which could flow through the claws, we could escape!"
  - All of Superfriends was made of this trope. It was parodied openly in a sketch on The State, Superman orders the other heroes to basically cleanup duty and then says "I'll stop the missiles... all by myself!" And then grabs his crotch with a smug look on his face.
- Marvel's Vision has occasionally fallen victim to similar attacks (though it's rarer). In one issue of ''What If'?', he was killed by a parasitic alien vine that grew into his bodily systems. A fan wrote in to ask what was up; the editors eagerly latched onto his suggestion that "the plant in question isn't entirely tangible itself, and that's why the villain used it".
  - An Avengers comic had Vision, along with Thor and Iron Man, taken out by knockout gas. Hmm, a Physical God who can control winds, an unbreathing android, and a guy in a sealed combat suit? No problem. The criminal masterminds who took them out so easily?... Well, you've got to see this one for yourself.
Usagi often used her disguise pen in the first season of Sailor Moon to get into areas where access was forbidden otherwise. In later seasons, it was completely forgotten... except for one odd season three episode when Minako borrowed Usagi's pen to act as an Identity Impersonator for Sailor Moon. Note that Minako actually had her own disguise compact in the Codename wa Sailor V manga and in the Sailor Moon manga, although the fact that it was never shown in the anime may mean it simply doesn't exist in this continuity. Additionally, in the manga, both Usagi and Minako have devices (a mask and a compact respectively) that can reveal the disguised enemies' true forms; these conveniently get forgotten when it comes to fighting Witches 5 or the Dead Moon Circus, who do disguise themselves as normal people in areas that are known to have connection to the enemies...
All the main cast (save Judai) of Yu-Gi-Oh GX during the third season seem to become complete ignoramuses when it comes to the game of Duel Monsters; once it hits the fan and they're confronted by Dueling Zombies and homicidal Duel Monsters, instead of using their uber-dueling skills to defend themselves or getting the hell out of Dodge and not add to the problem (as dueling during the first part of the season only added fuel to the fire), they chose door #3 and just sat on their asses until they got captured and killed off. The worst offender has to be Sho, who purposely keeps his distance from Judai and the rest of the gang for some reason all his own, even when his intervention as their close and dear friend could've helped avoided most of the latter-half problems altogether.
- Also happens in its parent series when Yugi, for no apparent reason, hands over his Exodia cards to Insector Haga (Weevil Underwood), a very shady generic bad character, who promptly tosses them off the boat they were on. The loss seems to be for no other reason than to ensure Yugi doesn't win all his duels with Exodia stomping. This is mocked in the Abridged Series, where Yugi flat-out says "You're clearly evil, but I see no reason not to trust you".
- In the episodes where Marik fights Yugi using Slifer the Sky Dragon, Yugi has only 1100 points left. Why doesn't he summon a monster to attack him directly? With all those cards he drew, he certainly should have more than enough. Or better that, just put Revival Jam in attack mode and do it (Granted, that stops Revival Jam from defending Slifer from then on, but you've already won!).
  - If I recall correctly, there really wasn't anything he could have done, the cycle constantly activated in one phase so his turn never even came up again so he never got the chance to even use any of the cards he got.
A good video game example is Quistis in Final Fantasy VIII during the "parade assassination attempt" sequence: she leaves her post during the critical phase of a meticulously planned mission, with half the party in tow, just to traipse halfway across the city so she can apologise to Rinoa for an earlier misunderstanding. And she's usually the level-headed Cool Big Sis figure. Someone handed her the Idiot Ball.
In Naruto during the Forest of Death arc, Haruno Sakura uses her ninja training to stab an enemy in a non-vital spot, then she bites him and hangs on for a bludgeoning rather than attack in any other way. After the time jump, she gets herself impaled by flinging herself in the path of an attacking ninja rather than deflecting him from his target.
- This echoes the instance in Tsunade's fight with Orochimaru, where Tsunade throws herself between Orochimaru and Naruto and is impaled for her efforts.
In all versions of Battle Royale, Shogo Kawada tells Hiroki Sugimura that, when he's ready to meet back up with Kawada's group, he should light two signal fires and then move off and listen for Kawada's birdcall. This sets up a scene later where Kawada explains the personal significance the birdcall holds for him, and helps Kazuo Kiriyama locate Kawada and company to touch off the climactic final battle. The problem? Sugimura has a GPS tracking system which allows him to see where everyone is.
Pretty much any story where the characters have access to some kind of beaming technology or the equivalent uses this to some degree, and really has to given the immense versatility of being able to teleport anything at will. Stargate SG-1 does this less than many shows, having beamed nukes into other ships, beamed a skyscraper into orbit before it exploded, and beaming people out of ships into space, but they have yet to beam an enemy ship in half.
An episode of The Powerpuff Girls neatly subverts this trope: Buttercup is being chased away by an angry mob, and runs away from them... until she exclaims "Wait, what am I doing?", and remembers she can just fly away from them.
The Essential Silver Surfer is full of this. To get into a story with an Evil Twin, a Mad Scientist convinces the Surfer to get into his duplicating machine. The Surfer pretty much says "Well, I've been screwed over by a Mad Scientist before, and I sense evil in you, but what the hell." When he meets a scientist who invents a device that might let him leave Earth but needs money to make it, the Surfer decides to get a job. He can't (because he doesn't have a Social Security number, he's not in the union and he's funny-looking) so almost robs a bank in desperation, forgetting he can manipulate matter and could just make the scientist's gear for him. He spends about eight comics looking for someone who won't hate him for being "a silver-skinned freak" before he remembers that the Fantastic Four were quite friendly...need I go on?
The Mobile Infantry in the Starship Troopers movie have rifles that come with underbarrel shotguns and nuclear rocket launchers, yet they seem to rely almost entirely on their rifles' regular firing mode - even when faced with instances where such weapons would be most effective, such as close combat with the Bugs or when facing a horde of thousands of bunched-together aliens charging their fixed positions.
In Marvel Zombies, the zombies are attacking Doctor Doom's castle and the Scarlet Witch is infected by the Punisher. Gee, Scarlet Witch, did it never occur to you you could just teleport him and the other zombies away like you did with Ash earlier? Or teleport Enchantress away earlier so Dazzler wouldn't be infected? It is also never explained why Doom didn't just kill Enchantress in the beginning like he did later.
Truth In Television: Pigeons and seagulls both will run away for a surprisingly long time if you start chasing them. Of course, they're pigeons and seagulls.

Some examples of the rarer version:

Gordon Freeman is a particularly egregrious example. What happened to his theoretical physics?
- How the hell does that help him exactly?
- It helps him in a strictly theoretical sense. XD
Technological jargon aside, the Merged Hulk often seemed to be unaware that he had Bruce Banner's smarts as well as the original Hulk's strength.
Yomiko Readman could have made her life so much easier if she had actually bothered to exploit all the literary tropes her enemies often followed. After reading so much, she could have become this site's number one contributor if she were real.
- This Troper is still shocked that after a definitely Shout Out and You Shall Not Pass moment after cutting the "bridge" to cause Wong to fall to his doom, Maggie didn't remember The Lord Of The Rings and step away from the edge. Sure enough, the evil Paper User sends a whip made of paper to drag her down with him and they battle it out on the way down.