What An Idiot - Television Tropes & Idioms

Most viewers have basic common sense, and one would usually expect characters on TV shows (except for ditzes) to have some basic common sense as well. Any deviation from such usually prompts the comment "What an idiot" or similar, thus the entry name.

It is also the usual reaction to a character demonstrating especially severe Genre Blindness.

Can also be a response to ineffectual contestants on a Game Show.

Common forms of the trope:

And please, as tempting as it is to defend your favorite show from forcing the Idiot Ball into its characters' hands, refrain from making Justifying Edits. Or at very least, keep them to a minimum; for a Card Carrying Villain or Idiot Hero (naturally) a few of these are to be expected. If the entire show has an Idiot Plot, it goes on that page instead.

Warning: Spoilers ahead!

There are also other examples which do not fit the standard idiocy (i.e., no Genre Blindness, no misunderstandings, just a "what the hell are you doing?" reaction).

This is probably going to be more of a "personal" section, where you list your personal "What an idiot" moments. Follow the format given, please...

Examples:

Live Action TV

Malcolm In The Middle, "The Reunion" (the one with Christopher "Doc Brown" Lloyd in a guest role): Lois sees her extended family about to take their family portrait without her.
You'd expect: That she would yell "Stop!" or something like that to allow her time to get into shot, especially since she wanted to be part of it, and had been spending the last few minutes trying to find some high-heels to replace her sneakers. Besides, even with the photographer's quick second take, she still had about 9-10 seconds to do something.
Instead: Those 9-10 seconds pass without Lois saying anything, and she spends the rest of the reunion crying in her room's closet.
A Television Without Pity poster questions two Flight 29 Down characters not killing a pig, just because another tells them: "We have to survive on this island, but we also have to live with ourselves after we're rescued." First, in any context, it's the Lost version of throwing your first caught fish back into the river just because it bit your nose instead of your hook and line. Second, you do have to live with yourselves after you get rescued, but you have to survive on this island first. Yet, instead of the two characters calling the other character on this comment, the pig gets to run free.
Heroes: At the end of Season 1, the Company captures Sylar. They inject him with a virus that suppresses his powers. That's a pretty smart idea. But then there's the question of what to do with him afterwards.
You'd expect - That they would keep him in a cell in one of their facilities, with armed guards, scientists to run tests on him, and security systems that would work to prevent his escape, and inform them if he succeeded.
Instead - They put him in a shack in the middle of nowhere with absolutely nothing to prevent him from just walking out, and only one guard. She proceeds to have her own What An Idiot moment when she carefully demonstrates her powers of illusion to the psychotic power-stealing serial killer, then does nothing as he acts threateningly towards her and shortly attacks and kills her. Finally, the Company apparently has no way of telling whether Sylar has escaped, as he is able to walk away from the shack for three days without any pursuit.
Law And Order Special Victims Unit: The team finds a homeless girl and got her to give up information about her "father", a wanted criminal who has killed several people and is still on the loose after a woman is murdered.
You'd Expect: They'd put her in the protective custody of the police and keep her safe in case her "father" wants to kill her for ratting on him.
Instead: They release her to the head of a shelter with no one there to guard her. Predictably, her "father" comes back for the kid and kills both her and the head of the shelter. Saw that one coming.
- Again, same show, more stupid: An Afghan girl living in New York is stabbed to death by her brother, for refusing her arranged marriage to a Taliban leader and attempting to run away with her also Afghan boyfriend. It seems that the older brother actually did it under heavy psychological abuse (pretty much Mind Rape) coming from their evil, oppressive, ultra-traditional ex-Taliban father. And the mother is the only one able to confirm that in court.
  You'd Expect: After heavily pressuring the old woman to testify against her husband, the team would give her immediate protection and take her away from the evil patriarch, not letting him near her until the trial is over.
  Instead: They release her so she can go home. She's predictably murdered by the asshole of a husband that same night; he immediately runs away to Afghanistan since he's a diplomatic agent and the team can't catch him. So now the son is in an American jail for the murder, the girl and the mother are dead, and the biggest culprit is free.
  However: If this troper remembers correctly, the mother refused protection and chose to return home. She almost certainly knew what was coming.
In Robin Hood, episode "Brothers in Arms": Guy of Gisborne confiscates a necklace from a woman so that he has a gift for Marian. Robin Hood tells Marian about its origin.
You'd expect: Marian to return the necklace to its owner herself, and tell Guy that she does not accept stolen gifts. (She could have easily come up with an excuse of how she found out. Say: "I have overheard it at the market, asked the woman, and it was indeed hers.")
Instead: Marian gives the necklace to Robin, who returns it to its owner. Predictably, Sir Guy finds out and starts suspecting that Marian spies for Robin Hood. This starts the chain of events which ends with Marian being forced to promise to marry Guy, to dispel the suspicion.
In the penultimate episode of Roots, one slave character (this troper forgets his name, possibly Virgil) discovers a thief in a food storage shed who messed the place up and runs off when discovered.
You'd expect: "Virgil" to go to his masters and tell them about the thief to minimize the risk of being beaten when the thief runs off.
Instead: Virgil nonchalantly tries to clean up the mess whereupon his masters come across the scene seconds later. They don't believe him when he (with surprisingly little emotion, though this could be a "deer in the headlights" type reaction) tells them about the thief and he is promptly used as a punching bag by his handlers.
The Xindi in their arc of Star Trek Enterprise season 3. They hate humans, they are building an Earth Shattering Kaboom gun. Now at this point they have five major advantages: Their enemy has no clue they exist, they have four hundred years to refine their prototype, they have allies who give them technology and can see the future, they live in a remote and inaccessible part of space, and they can travel nigh-instantaneously across the universe. Now they complete a Small Country Shattering Kaboom prototype of their weapon, and...
You'd Expect: They test it on some out of the way moon or planet no one will miss. Then they use the data from that test to refine their final version, teleport it over to Earth, and destroy the planet with one shot.
Instead: They test the prototype on Earth itself. Earth immediately sends The Enterprise after them, which: finds them, destroys their next prototype, convinces them not to blow up Earth (causing a racial civil war in the process), and murders their future-seeing allies. Good job, Xindi! You failed only because of your own stupidity.
Stargate SG-1: Sha're is found pregnant on Abydos. The Goa'uld inside her body cannot take control while she is pregnant lest she go into labor prematurely and lose the baby. Further, a device that could kill a Goa'uld symbiote while leaving the host unharmed was revealed in a previous episode. (Although the original was destroyed, it was stated that it would be replaced. So no excuses there.
You'd Expect: ) They would take Sha're to this device and have the Goa'uld removed. Or take her to Earth, let her give birth, restrain her, and then take her to have the symbiote removed.
Instead: They sit around on Abydos until she gives birth and the Goa'uld takes over again.
Star Trek The Next Generation: In "Datalore", the Enterprise happens to find Lore, an identical twin robot of Data. At one point, when Data and Lore are alone, Lore reveals himself to be an Evil Twin by incapacitating Data (turning him off), then claims that he is Data and that Lore attacked him, and he disabled Lore in response.
You'd think: That the very blatantly obvious fact that the two are identical would make Picard (who is The Captain after all) suspicious, and he would ask Lore something only Data would know to find out if he was really Data or not. Even if he didn't bother with any of that, you'd think he'd at least be sure to keep a careful eye on Lore and take any advice from him with a grain of salt, just in case.
Instead: Picard implicitly trusts Lore, believing he's Data, even when he does things that Data wouldn't do (seriously, isn't the fact that he manages to stop the crystalline entity's attack on the Enterprise just by talking to it suspicious in and of itself?). Even worse, Wesley explicitly tries to point out the possibility to Picard, and Picard for some reason ignores him. Sure, he's The Wesley, but that does mean he has a tendency to be right. The only reason everyone on the Enterprise didn't die due to Picard's appalling stupidity is that The Wesley goes against orders and manages to save the day. Just for the record, Kirk would never have made that mistake.
- However: Being The Wesley means you're right because the writer says you are, and being persecuted for being right is even Weslier. It also means that whatever else must fall by the wayside for this to happen will fall away like dead leaves.
Dark Angel: Max comes across a transgenic who can see into the future. At one point he tells Max several actions he can see her taking in the near future, then is shocked when he sees her die as a result of these actions.
You'd Expect: The guy would warn Max that she'll die if she does all the stuff he just told her about.
Instead: He keeps quiet and just starts crying, leaving Max to assume she's supposed to do what he just said. He ends up dying because of his own idiocy when he throws himself in front of the bullet she would have taken.
Greek: The main sorority house is given a national consultant, Lizzi, who's there to oversee the house's recovery after a newspaper scandal takes them down a few pegs. In a slightly passive-aggressive fashion at the first meeting, she intimates that she does have disciplinary power over the house.
You'd Expect: Casey, the president, would at least work with Lizzi, or even confront her when some decisions Lizzi makes might not get the house's damaged social standing back.
Instead: Casey sulks silently to Ashleigh and lets Lizzi run roughshod over the house without actual protest. What power she does have is that which goes behind Lizzi's back, with nearly disastrous consequences...nearly every time.
However: The house prides its sisters on being very ladylike, plus Casey is an interim president after the former president was stripped of her presidency thanks to the scandal. Said former president was incredibly good at manipulating and beating down the willpower of the sisters, especially Casey.
The 10th Kingdom: After losing the magic Traveling mirror to the Huntsman and being filled with despair at the thought of never being able to go home again, Wolf takes Virginia out to dinner to cheer her up. He rents a gorgeous tux, composes music especially for her, gives her a romantic carriage ride with lots of flowers, rents an entire restaurant just for them, and then after a long, huge dinner and a wonderful first kiss, gives her a magical singing engagement ring to propose marriage.
You'd Expect: Moved by these many gestures of devotion, true love, and romance, Virginia would realize Wolf really does love her and wish to give her anything to bring her happiness. Tearfully, she accepts the ring, agrees to marry him, and starts believing in happy endings again.
Instead: She demands to know how Wolf paid for all of it. Once he admits he won a huge gambling jackpot and spent it on this instead of buying the mirror she throws a huge tantrum, insists Wolf is selfish and doesn't love her, then stalks out, leaving him to howl alone in the restaurant. All this accomplishes is setting up for Wolf's Face Heel Turn and Virginia's RockBottom moment just before the mirror gets broken.
- Nah, Virginia wasn't the idiot, it was Wolf. When she confronts him...
  You'd Expect: Wolf to do his conman routine, lie through his teeth, and say half of Kissing Town owes him favors.
  Instead: See above. The one time in the miniseries he doesn't even try to come up with a good lie.
Charmed: The Charmed Ones are helping the half-demon Cole redeem himself by preparing a potion to remove his demon side and make him fully human. They complete the potion, but before he gets to drink it, Cole's former mentor shows up and uses magic to take control of his demonic side, forcing him to kill someone the sisters were protecting.
You'd Expect: them to give him the potion, to make sure this doesn't happen again.
Instead: They destroy the potion in anger and end their friendship. Obviously, this does not end well.
Firefly: the episode "The Message," where Mal and Zoe's old war buddy Tracy is being hunted by organ-pirates after his expensive innards. Tracy comes into the bridge and overhears Mal talking about giving up and letting the bad guys board the ship. Tracy wigs out, grabs a gun, and takes Kaylee hostage because he doesn't hear the whole plan, which is that they were going to lure the bad guys on board and either kill them or indimidate them into leaving. Now Mal and the rest of the crew have Tracy at gunpoint.
You'd Expect: Mal tells Tracy the actual plan, calming his fears and getting them all out of this alive.
Instead: Mal draws out the standoff unnecessarily, argues with Tracy about how stupid he is, and eventually fatally shoots him.
Justifying Note: Mal was a sergeant in the war, with Tracy under his command. Furthermore, Tracy actively sought him and Zoe as the people he could most trust to help him. Given all this evidence, it's only reasonable for Mal, not to mention the viewer, to expect that Tracy would follow orders and trust the sarge. When Tracy overhears the plan, he instead goes from zero to panic mode in about half a second, and becomes drastically less reasonable about things. Mal could probably have tried, but chances are it would have turned out largely the same.
Doctor Who, a '70s example. In Invasion of the Dinosaurs episode 3, Sarah Jane decides to take pictures of a chained, sedated Tyrannosaurus Rex.
You'd Expect: her to keep pictures to a minimum, bot use flashes or anything that could annoy the dinosaur, and keep to the small antechamber of the main hanger where the dinosaur is held.
Instead: she jams on that flash hard as hell, and even when the dinosaur stirs, she just waltzes in to take close-ups, naturally awakening the dinosaur, which breaks the chains. She's hit by a falling 2x4 while screamingly trying to open the unaccountably locked exit door, as the dinosaur bashes the anteroom with its tail.

Reality TV

The most recent season of Survivor had a particularly stunning example of this. Near the endgame, there were five contestants left - 1 male (Erik) and 4 females. Erik won the Immunity Challenge, so the four women plotted to get him to willingly surrender his immunity. They sent one of their group (Natalie) to convince him that he needed to give it up to "redeem" himself.
You'd expect: Erik to tell Natalie exactly where to stick her request, knowing that this game is based upon the concept of "Looking out for #1"
Instead: He gives her the immunity idol just before the elimination vote. No points if you guess what happened next.

Anime

Yu-Gi-Oh GX, "Start of the New School Year! The Premonition of Tribulation": It's the start of the third school year, and despite showing amazing talent and tenacity in the two previous years, our hero Judai is still in the Osiris Red dorm, having turned down promotion.
You'd expect: Sameshima, the chancellor at the Academy, to flex his authority muscles and simply promote him to a higher dorm.
Instead: He calls Professor Cobra in to further motivate the lad... only to realize later that Cobra is an unhinged hardass nutjob under the employ of a demonic Duel Monsters card, and his brand of "motivation" involves life-energy-sucking armbands.
Lucky Star: Konata complains that she can't get to watch the most recent anime because a lot of baseball games have been going to extra innings. When the other girls point out that she could get cable TV, she says she somehow can't get it.
You'd expect Konata to find a way to download the raws of any chapter she missed, maybe with Bittorrent or something similar.
Instead, she just keeps complaining that she can't watch her daily dose of anime without doing anything about that.
However, this is most likely because no producer would like to see someone in TV actively promoting copyright infringement. In this case, this is a consequence of Executive Meddling.
- Also in Lucky Star: Konata's dad is taking pictures of high school girls in the sports festival. He's spotted by a couple of guards. Cut to Konata watching his dad being dragged away while he's saying "But I thought my daughter was there!".
  You'd expect Konata to say "I'm his daughter, leave him alone!".
  Instead, she lets them drag him away.
  However, being the daughter of a Dirty Old Man would make the authorities suspect Konata's being abused by her dad, so maybe it was better off this way.
In Mamotte Shugogetten, the hero Tasuke looks into a ring and gets a guardian spirit from it because of his purity of heart. A legend that his dad sent along with the ring said that something like this would happen. Of course, she causes him lots of trouble by doing things like destroying his school, locking him up at Christmas, etc. He receives more gifts like this via the mail from his traveling dad. They have legends that say if someone with a pure heart does something or other, some spirit will appear, etc.
You'd Expect He'd remember the legend of the ring and therefore count all these legends as true, being careful to avoid doing the stuff that would activate them.
Instead He does exactly what is required to activate those legends. He repeats this mistake twice. Once the spirit inside has repeatedly tried to get him to pay attention to only her, and the other time the spirit's only job is to create "trials" for her master, really just making life more difficult on him.
Dragonball Z, Vegeta, while effortlessly defeating Imperfect Cell, acknowledges Cell's last transformation.
You'd expect that he would acknowledge his son Trunks' warnings, considering that he knows a great deal about Cell, and annihilate the evil alien while he still had the chance and prevent the destruction of the world as well as thousands of lives.
Instead he beats the crap out of Trunks and then allows Cell to transform into his ultra-powerful One Winged Angel form because of his massive overconfidence. Cell proceeds to promptly beat the crap out of Vegeta, Trunks, and anybody who stands in his way at that point, threatening the entire world with his power. The Saiyens do this a lot, perhaps out of honour.
In Bleach almost every swordfight will end with one character severely injuring or incapacitating their opponent.
You'd expect The winner (at least the villains) would finish off the loser, or at the very least, check to make sure they're actually dead.
Instead The winner will always make some snide comment about how badly the loser was owned, and leave them for dead. A particularly bad instance was when Byakuya (the most common offender of this), who is intensely honorable, first fought Ichigo. After badly injuring Ichigo, he says something along the lines of "You will die within half an hour" and walks away. Obviously this fails to happen. To be fair, though, in this case Byakuya made sure that even if Ichigo survived he'd never ever have spiritual powers again - what he didn't count on was Urahara's involvement, which is understandable knowing the backstory.
In Death Note, Naomi Misora engages in her own attempt to track down Kira after he murders her fiancé. Having deduced that Kira needs both a name and a face to kill his victims, she uses a pseudonym the whole time she's in Japan, even when she meets someone who seems innocent, like high school student Light Yagami. As it turns out, Light is the son of a member of the official investigation team, and offers to help Naomi join them - if she gives him her personal information. He is inhumanly persuasive, but even so
You'd expect that Naomi, a former FBI agent who is respected by the world's top detective, would keep using her pseudonym, because she has no idea who or where Kira is and could become his next victim easily.
Instead she gives Light her real name, even apologizing for using a pseudonym when they first met. Of course, as the viewers already know, Light is Kira, and 40 seconds later Naomi is as good as dead.
- In the second episode of Death Note, Interpol makes a broadcast wherein "L", the greatest detective ever, announces that he will be taking the Kira cases. More importantly, he does this while giving his real name and showing his face for what is supposed to be the first time ever, and is practically daring Kira to kill him right then and there. There is something suspiciously fishy about this.
  You'd expect: Light realize this was likely to be a trap or probe of sorts and avoid killing the man. Or, if the temptation is too strong, do some research on the name and face to check if its falsified first and then kill him at a later date (for extra points, arrange it so that his blood splatter reads "Nice try, idiots.")
  Instead: He writes his name in the Death Note right then and there and, big surprise, it was a trap. Now, not only did L figure out his MO and limitations, but he pinpointed his location. Way to go, dumbass.
  Furthermore: both English and Japanese (as the languages of the broadcast) have disadvantages that would deter anybody in Light's position from doing this. In Japanese, the broadcast suggests that Kira is somewhere in Japan, because it claims to be an international broadcast but it is not speaking in English, which the Death Note's instructions were in. In English, it's suggesting it is indeed international, but then that would tell Light that L doesn't have proof.
- After his first failed attempt to kill Near in Death Note, Light Yagami sends the Death Note to Teru Mikami, a definite Kira supporter, with instructions on it.
  You'd expect: Light to send a message to Mikami to hide a page of the Death Note on his person, considering he must have had Kiyomi Takada do the same herself. This would help him handle emergencies, the number of which had lately been high enough for Light to be tempted to kill Sayu with the watch trick.
  Instead: He does not. This is clear from the fact that Mikami has to go to the bank a second time in a single day in the first place to kill Takada, leading to Kira's defeat.
Happens to Team Rocket on numerous occasions (making this more of a "What Idiots" moment), usually used as an Ass Pull. In "Pokemon Paparazzi" they've successfully captured Pikachu and defeated Ash and Todd.
You'd expect - Them to the get the heck out of there.
Instead - They throw bombs at Ash and Todd and are fooled into posing for a shot, where the bombs blow themselves up, thus defeating them.
School Days: Setsuna wants to hook up Makoto with her best friend Sekai before she leaves for Europe so he can "protect" her. Alas, Makoto openly turns out to be a womanizing bastard who doesn't care one bit about the girls he deals with.
You'd expect: Setsuna decides that Makoto is a scumbag, not worthy of her beloved Sekai's attention and ceases her efforts...or at least attempts to "save" Sekai from Makoto as she falls down with him.
Instead: Setsuna keeps trying to force Makoto to maintain a relationship he is vocally not really interested in, trying to prevent him from seeing other girls (primarily poor Kotonoha), causing a lot of hardship for all involved. That even includes herself, since she even goes so far as to offer herself to him as long as he stays with Sekai. That's really idiotic on a world-scale level.
Really: School Days has a truly epic Idiot Plot (and a well-deserved entry in said trope already). Writing down all the What An Idiot moments in it is an inherent exercise in futility that would consume several pages' worth, unless we were to boil them all down to the cardinal sin of "not having Makoto castrated by the end of episode 3".
While Gundam SEED Destiny is full of Idiot Plot, the most egregious is Lord Djibril, leader of the Atlantic Federation (North America and Britain), getting a new super weapon: the Destroy Gundam.
You'd expect - He would join forces with his allies (the rest of the Earth Alliance, especially the Eurasian Federation), and put Neo Roanoke (his best pilot) in it.
Instead - He attacks the Eurasia Federation, which is stopped when Zaft and the Three Ship Alliance destroy the Destroy Gundam, which is piloted by Stella Loussier, who is clearly mentally handicapped. Betraying his most important ally causes nearly all of the rest of his allies (except for the two schmucks in Orb) to join forces with Zaft, basically ending the war.
In Oh My Goddess, the heavenly computer Yggdrasil has just lost the contract that was binding Belldandy and Keiichi in the aftermath of the Lord of Terror incident, which the two played a major part in stopping.
You'd Expect - The Almighty One as supreme ruler of heaven would just flex those authority muscles of his and arrange for a new contract to be made or just allow the two to stay together without a contract, especially since they have just saved the world and heaven, too.
Instead - He informs Belldandy that she can only stay with Keiichi for three more days (?) and then she must go back to granting wishes. The original contract is eventually restored but still, this guy is supposed to be the ruler of heaven; you'd expect he'd be nicer...
Justifying note - The anime is built around Norse mythology, where gods aren't omnipotent. The main God just happens to be the the boss, because he is the strongest. Besides, he does seem to look the other way while several of his subordinates restore the contract from backup, even though they acknowledge that they're breaking some rules in the process.
However- Since when do you need omnipotent magic to write a contract? Also, this seems especially cruel since it has been implied that Belldandy is his daughter. And he seems pretty willing to force her to go back to granting people's wishes, even though that really can't be a busy job (how many pure-hearted people can there be). So he can't even bend the rules for his daughter that just managed to save both Heaven and Earth from utter destruction?
Hagino in Blue Drop is the commander of an alien battleship who learns about her people's plan to invade the earth, which she is squarely opposed to since the has grown to love the planet and its inhabitants - and one inhabitant in particular: Mari.
You'd Expect - Hagino puts all of her knowledge and resources on the line to stall the invasion and to save as many people as possible - including herself and the girl she loves. She'd be a greater asset to the Earth's resistance when she's alive, after all.
Instead - She wastes a lot of time and energy rehearsing a silly school play, because the girl she loves is in it as well. Once the invasion starts, she can't do much more than put on a kamikaze-act to save her girl's city from destruction. Although this is very heroic, it is also very stupid and wasteful. Hagino's people obviously have a lot of trouble thinking clearly when under the influence of hormones, as is also shown in the manga.
In Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure, Jean Pierre Polnareff is attacked in his hotel room by the possessed doll Ebony Devil, who manages to trick him and tie him to the underside of his bed. Fortunately for Polnareff, he possesses a guardian spirit known as a "Stand", the sword-wielding Silver Chariot, with which he can battle Ebony Devil; unfortunately, he cannot see out of Silver Chariot's eyes, forcing him to fight blind.
You'd Expect: Polnareff to use Silver Chariot's sword to cut himself free.
Instead: Polnareff uses Silver Chariot to shatter a mirror, allowing him to see Ebony Devil's reflection in the broken shards on the floor. Which is a smart solution to the problem, but it was only a problem in the first place because of his stupidity.
Justifying note - Polnareff was facing an opponent that would viciously attack him the second he stopped trying to hit him. Those seconds taken to cut the ropes would have gotten his throat slit.
In Hot Gimmick, a girl named Hatsumi is tasked with getting a pregnancy test for her (decidedly underage) sister, under the premise that it's for her. On the way back however, she bumps into Ryouki, the Manipulative Bastard son of the landlady (who is very traditional and disapproves of teenage sex).
You'd expect: Hatsumi lies and says "it's for me" or even better "my parents are trying for another child" (they aren't that old).
Instead: She says "they're for my sister", setting up the blackmail plot of the series.
In Welcome To The NHK, Satou is given a stash of underage pornography by Yamazaki. Afraid that he himself is becoming a Lolicon, he resolves to improve himself.
You'd expect: He gets rid of the pornography.
Instead: He comes up with a plan where he hangs around in the bushes outside a middle school wearing a trenchcoat and looking every inch the creepy paedophile while carrying a camera - the idea being that seeing himself like this will be sufficient impetus to stop his attraction to Lolita-like characters (while keeping the pornography). This won't end well.
However: Welcome To The NHK's unique selling point could best be described as "it's a Slice Of Life show... and they're all mentally ill", so it's not completely out of character.
In the Sailor Moon R TV series, Mamoru Chiba starts freaking out after he has a dream where Usagi will die. And not only that, he has it several times (considering the source, it can be seen as mild Mind Rape). All of this takes its toll, and he dumps Usagi to avoid exposing her to danger.
You'd Expect: Mamoru to eventually tell Usagi straightforwardly that he's got big issues of his own to solve and needs some time out to figure what the hell goes on. Maybe not tell her the content of the dream, but he could at least let her know that the blame's not on her.
Instead: Not only does Mamoru dump Usagi without any decent explanation, but he actually does everything in his power to push her away for almost 20 episodes straight, sometimes even resorting to borderline psychological abuse (calling her weak, yelling at her, etc.)... and still refusing to tell her why he let her go. The result? - the confused Usagi flickers between being determined to become strong enough to win him back and being so depressed that the enemy takes advantage of her fragile state of mind and almost kills her in episode 69.
In the Watanagashi arc of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, Keiichi narrowly manages to escape from his friend's Torture Cellar after almost having nails hammered into every joint in his hands. Before he escapes, However, Shion warns him just before not to come near her if he sees her again. She manages to escape as well and a few days later throws stones at Keiichi's window in the middle of the night.
You'd Expect: Keiichi would lock all of the doors, stay inside, and call the police, since at this point, she's a full-blown Ax Crazy who's responsible for the murder of four different people.
Instead: He goes outside and talks to her to find out if she's okay. After giving a few good Evil Laughs, she shows him why this was so stupid and stabs him in the gut. Ironically, this isn't even the thing that does him in this arc. He finally dies from psychological trauma from all the abuse he racked up.
B-Ko from Project A Ko has fallen in love with her ditzy classmate C-Ko.
You'd expect: B-Ko tries to woo C-ko with positive attention, handing out compliments, giving her presents like chocolates or stuffed animals -- and eventually asks her if she'd like to date her. Since C-Ko loves cute stuff, approaching her in a cutesy fashion might be the best strategy.
Instead: B-Ko tries to kill C-Ko's best friend A-Ko, even though it's obvious that C-Ko and A-Ko are not romantically involved. Heck, A-Ko might have even rooted for her friend's new love. And anyway, killing a girl's best buddy might be a bad idea when you want to win over her heart. B-ko has a long history of similar behaviour.
Mai-HiME: Episode 13, "Night of the Tamayura": Yuuichi and Shiho are out on a date, and they bump into Mai and Reito just as they're about to kiss. He's still struggling to decide whether or not he actually likes Mai "in that way".
You'd expect: Yuuichi to keep his mouth shut and wait until the end of the festival to ask Mai about what happened...or perhaps confronted her about his feelings, oh, I dunno...eight episodes ago, when Reito wasn't around.
Instead: He picks the worst possible time to blurt out Mai's name, and breaks two cardinal rules of dating in the process: 1) Never cockblock another guy (especially one of your friends) just as he's about to get some action, and 2) Never confess/imply that you like another girl in front of your date (especially when your date actually loves you, and she gets jealous very easily). Now, Shiho's mad at Mai and refuses to talk to her; and Reito, usually a calm and collected guy, is mad at Yuuichi because he suspects something's going on between the two of them (at this point, there isn't). Nice job breaking them up, "hero".
The Big Bad in Full Metal Panic! is captured by the heroic mercenaries after a costly battle.
You'd expect: Considering all the knowledge the members of Mithril had of this man, his incredible connections, relentless brutality, and the obvious superhuman knowledge he had of the Mithril group, they would deem that any information he could provide would be completely unworthy of the trouble required to get it and just Kill Him Already.
Instead: The officers of a mercenary organization let him aboard their Black Box laden submarine and expect him to just sit quietly in his cell waiting for death. Why didn't Sousuke at least point out that the guy was too dangerous to let live? Maybe they were obeying orders from higher up, but someone in Mithril defintiely had the Idiot Ball that week..
One of the Creepy Twins in Black Lagoon is lured onto a square, with only one female Bad Ass in sight, who is calmly awaiting him.
You'd expect: The twin's survival instincts and experience tell him (her?) it's obviously a trap and the Bad Ass is unlikely to be alone. The square is surrounded by lots of lovely locations for snipers to hide, so he stays out of sight and makes a getaway. Alternatively, he could try to rush an attack, a method he has shown to be quite competent in. Anything but standing still in plain sight would do, really.
Instead: He hops out in the open to threaten the Bad Ass and gets shot by snipers. Sure, the twins are severe sociopaths, but at that level of stupidity it's amazing they even survived as long as they did.
- Also from Black Lagoon and related to the previous one: the other twin tries to escape town on her (his?) own.
  You'd expect: She finds a way to sneak out of the city with as few people noticing as possible. The few who do notice get swiftly dealt with, as she has done successfully for years already.
  Instead: She tries to leave the city with the Lagoon's extremely conspicuous torpedo boat, even if she knows (or can know) that the Lagoon has connections to the Moscow Hotel. Revy even tried to kill her before! Worse, she hops carelessly off the boat after arrival, even though she doesn't even know where she is. Heck, the crew even left her with her weapon, so why doesn't she wield it? And why the heck doesn't she check her surroundings? Then she might have caught that (elderly) assassin who has to walk down the entire damn pier to take a shot at her - an action that would have easily gotten him killed in earlier episodes.
Mahoro from Mahoromatic finds out that her master Suguru participates in a street fight festival. She sets out with Minawa to retrieve him and bring him home safely.
You'd Expect: Mahoro and Minawa take off for the air and survey the area from there, since you have to fight when you walk the streets. Alternatively, they could simply break the flowers on their heads indicating that they are disqualified, so they won't be bothered by all those baton-swinging morons looking for a brawl.
Instead: They walk around with the flowers intact on their heads and get distracted by fighting all those apparently brain-damaged locals - which also takes a ridiculous amount of effort, considering they are battle-androids.
- Also from Mahoromatic: Mahoro keeps confiscating Suguru's Porn Stash, since according to her "dirty thoughts are bad".
  You'd Expect: Suguru makes clear that he is the master and she is the maid, and she has no right to tell him what he should or should not keep under his bed.
  Instead: Suguru lets Mahoro simply take away his expensive erotic books, even though he sometimes goes to great lengths to obtain a rare issue. Worse, he even allows himself to be scolded by her. Who is the master and who is the maid again?
In Oniisama E, Mariko makes sure Nanako and her best friend Tomoko miss each other after school. She then tells Tomoko that Nanako doesn't have time to spend with her anymore, since she joined the Sorority.
You'd Expect: Tomoko calls Nanako the same evening to ask her directly what's up. Seeing how Mariko is openly clingy with regards to Nanako should already have sounded some alarm bells.
Instead: Tomoko simply decides to believe Mariko without any evidence and goes into instant sulk mode. She even refuses Nanako's phone calls later that evening, not even wondering why Nanako would call her in the first place when she doesn't have time for her.
In the second Pokemon movie, the villain has just captured Moltres + Ash & co (and Team Rocket) acidentally.
You'd Expect: The villain to keep Ash and friends imprisoned, or just for kicks, dump them into the sea.
Instead: He lets them go as he monologues. A few minutes later, his flying base is in ruins and the two birds he captured have escaped. Nice work, moron.
In Strawberry Panic, sweet, shy, and cutesy Hikari has fallen in love with her older classmate Amane. However, as a result, she is being stalked, harrassed, and almost sexually assaulted by a Psycho Lesbian duo who want to get Amane to joint the Etoile ellection by threatening to harm her.
You'd Expect Hikari and/or Amane to report these occurances to either the school staff or the police.
Instead Neither of them do anything, and the evil duo end up nearly raping Hikari twice (needing to be saved at the very last minute), and she continues to be stalked and tormented until the end of the series. Not to mention that Amane is more or less bullied into entering the Etoile Election anyway.
The Result: Two Words: Karma Houdini.

Film

Rarely does What An Idiot actually work. Tin Cup is one of these cases, where Kevin Costner won't listen to Cheech Marin's advice to play the ball conservatively, and then loses a golf tournament when he doesn't.
- ...although after Jean Van Der Velde in the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie doing almost the exact same thing (leading by three at the 18th in the final round, he hit a shot behind the stands, resulting in a triple-bogey, and a playoff which he then lost to Paul Lawrie), it seems that either truth is stranger than fiction, or we shouldn't expect as much of fictional characters as we do.
Minority Report, where a cop who is racing to prevent a murder. He is armed with foreknowledge imagery of the crime, but it stymied when confronted with a row of identical houses.
You'd expect: He would turn out a siren, loudspeaker, or simply shout out that the police were outside of the building.
Instead: He takes several seconds to figure the one detail that was different about the correct house (an open door), then quietly races into the building to surprise the murderer.
- Far more importantly, when that same future-viewing device shows him and several coworkers that he will commit a murder himself, along with a heaping helping of details including the exact time, he runs. I'll grant him that, since the machine saying you will commit a murder is by itself enough to get you arrested and indefinitely cryogenically frozen with apparently no trial. However, what he does next is totally nonsensical.
  You'd expect: He would stay the hell away from wherever the murder was supposed to take place, and continue staying away until twenty minutes before it was supposed to happen, then take a taxi over to headquarters and show up three minutes before he's supposed to kill someone in a completely different location and say "Look, I'm here, not killing anyone, and you didn't have to arrest me for me not to kill someone. Therefore I'm not guilty." Or some variation of the above, the main part being that he avoids doing it and uses the fact that he didn't do it as evidence that he isn't a murderer.
  Instead: Convinced this was a plot to frame him, he goes all-out trying to find out who's responsible, commiting many illegal acts. When at the end of the time limit he realizes he is standing outside the very building his future victim is in, charges in and confronts the guy, who turns out to just be a very bribed man who then forces him to shoot him as part of a deal to make his family better off. That's right, in trying to prove his innocence he knowingly charges right into the scene of the crime and commits it. Clearly, he never heard about Self Fulfilling Prophecies.
- Egregious security errors on the part of the headquarters. Access is controlled via retinal scan.
  You'd expect: Once Anderton goes on the lam, they would lock out his retinal scan. Once he's captured and put into lockdown, they'd doubly make sure to lock out his retinal scan, especially since he switched out his eyes.
  Instead: Anderton manages to breach the security of the Temple, using his retinal scan, and steals one of the Pre-cogs. After he's arrested and detained, his wife uses his eye AGAIN to gain access to the jail.
Election sees a paranoid teacher put in charge of counting the votes in the class election. Much to his horror, he sees that his least favorite student Tracey Flick has won, but the election was Decided By One Vote.
You'd expect: He'd simply erase one checkmark for Flick and replace it with one for her opponent. It's not unheard of for someone to change their mind in the voting booth, after all. He also could have just stuffed the papers in his pocket. It's not like they'd frisk him.
Instead: He casually tosses two votes for Flick into the trash can, taking no effort to disguise or bury the papers they're written on. Naturally, the papers are discovered and his voter fraud is caught.
Pans Labyrinth sees the normally intelligent and bookish Ofelia given the task to enter a magical room and retrieve a knife that's under the care of a monstrous, sleeping guardian. Said guardian will only remain asleep as long as Ofelia doesn't touch any part of the sumptuous feast that's sitting on the table in front of him.
You'd expect: That Ofelia would remember every single Fairy Tale she's ever read that featured a situation similar to hers that had gone sour; that she'd remember the admonitions of the very scary-looking faun who'd given her the task, the disturbing, sharp-nailed cenobite-like guardian who is sitting at the end of the table (and the huge pile of children's shoes that is sitting next to him,) and the time limit that she's working under, AND that she would complete her task and get the hell out of there as quickly as her prepubescent legs could carry her.
Instead: She stops to dawdle long enough to eat two grapes, (while swatting away the fairies who are begging, pleading with her to hurry up) thus awakening the ravenous guardian, which proceeds to chow down on the fairies and then try to eat her as well.
- Also in Pans Labyrinth, when Mercedes gives the key of the storage house to Captain Vidal, she confirms (falsely) that it's the only key. You would expect that she would then proceed to tell the partisans she's aiding to bring some explosives or other means to break through the sturdy door.
  Instead: She gives them a duplicate of the key, which they use in their very next raid to steal supplies. This immediately results in Vidal getting suspicious of the person originally in charge of the keys, i.e. Mercedes, and eventually leads to her getting captured, and inches away from horrible torture.
This seems to be the only reason (barring outright surprise) that Psycho For Hire Anton Chigurh from the film No Country For Old Men is able to kill anyone at all, and it may be possible that a supernatural ability to instill crushing stupidity in otherwise fairly savvy people is why he's done as well as he has. This ranges from garroting a deputy who forgets he has (or should have) a gun, pulling over (in the deputy's car, no change in clothes) and shooting at literally point blank range an old man who may or may not be from the area and know the man who was supposed to be driving (not to mention he doesn't look a damn thing like a policeman), to getting the jump on and shooting multiple assailants by shining a flashlight in one of their faces. This is while surveying the corpses of a half dozen of their men. You'd think they'd be a little wary. Also, despite a marked ability to fight the Chigurh on his own terms, hero Llewelyn Moss is implied to be killed while drunk and womanizing, despite having issued a challenge the previous day, and knowing Chigurh is capable of easily tracking down the man who tracked him down. I mean, damn.
In Passenger 47 -- which, overall, makes perfect sense if it's intended to take place in a parallel universe where everyone is an utter moron -- one of the best moments comes when the Hero's Girlfriend is fighting one of the henchmen near the open luggage door of a moving airplane. She's about to fall out the door, clutching at the henchman's pant leg; he reaches desperately for his rifle, lying a few inches away. Finally he gets his fingers on it, gets it in his grip...
You'd Expect: he might consider, you know, shooting her.
Instead: he turns the gun around, and hits her with the butt. Guess who ends up falling out of the plane?
Star Wars: In "Revenge of the Sith" Obi-Wan discovers that Anakin has turned to the Dark Side, fights him and ends with having him without legs and one hand, burning, and sliding into a river of lava.
You'd think: That he'd kill him (because he's a Sith or for mercy), or at least wait for him to die. Or try to save him, somehow. It would be smarter and probably closer to Jedi morality to do so
Instead: He leaves him to a painful death. And has to deal with the consequences.
However: The novelization justifies this, in that Obi-Wan senses the approach of Palpatine and figures he doesn't have to finish Anakin off and escape. (Let's not forget that the not-yet-dead Padme is on his ship, as well)
- No mention of the stupidity of the Jedi Council in the prequel trilogy? They find a child who supposedly is supposed to bring balance to the Force.
  You'd Think: Being the calm, logical, rational loonys they are, they'd objective analyze the situation and realize, Hey! Light Side is rocking the good times, man! Balancing the Force would be bad for us!
  Instead: "Well, we'll train him since he's so powerful." Enjoy the afterlife, idiots.
  However: It's clear that Obi Wan is the only one (alive) who believes in the prophecy. The Council allows Anakin to be trained as a final honor to the fallen Qui Gon. Which, come to think of it, is even dumber: All the risks, none of the strength of conviction.
  - Double however: The Expanded Universe explains that the balance is not a Balance Between Good And Evil. The Light Side and Dark Side are not a balance. The prophecy was actually talking about the balance between the Unifying Force and Living Force: which Anakin did fulfil when he killed Palpatine in Return of the Jedi. The Jedi are still idiots for having a prophecy telling them that the Force wasn't in balance and not doing anything about it, though.

Literature

In Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort can split his soul to make Horcruxes. These keep him immortal as long as even one is around and they can regenerate from all but the worst damage. He can only make one after killing someone, which he does a lot of. The only side effects are him becoming less human and being more evil. He is a violent sociopath and does not care about these side effects.
You'd expect He'd make them random stuff in places where they are impossible to find, i.e. a grain of sand in the Sahara Desert or a twig in the Amazon Rain Forest. If he couldn't resist the urge to make them significant famous, he'd bury them in places like Antarctica, Death Valley, and a random uninhabited island. And he would make them very frequently.
Instead He makes them significant objects and hides them in places significant to him. He even gives two away to his minions without telling them what they are so they will be extremely careful with them. He makes only six on purpose and one by accident.
- Also in Harry Potter, the mysterious, almost inhuman Dark Lord Voldemort appears out of nowhere to rally the Wizarding world to his cause of pureblood supremacy.
  You'd Think: Someone, anyone, would try to figure out who this ominous figure is and whether he really is a pureblood wizard, or human for that matter.
  Instead: Blinded by pureblood madness, the Wizarding world lauds him until he's able to infiltrate the government and nearly stage a coup.
  However: It's probable that whenever anyone got close to figuring out Voldemort's real identity they'd mysteriously "disappear." I'd imagine it's not too easy to ask a person like him what his favorite fairy tale was as a child...
  Also: Nazi allegory. Hitler managed to convince Germany of the supremacy of tall, blond Aryans... while being short, dark-haired and Austrian.
- However: Harry and Co. have known Voldemort's true name (Tom Marvolo Riddle) since Chamber of Secrets. Half-Blood Prince made it clear that Dumbledore not only knew of Voldemort's dubious origins, he's known since before his first defeat.
  You'd Expect: Dumbledore to use this info to torpedo Voldemort's pureblood support and damage the air of fear and mystery about him.
  Instead: He sits on the info with no explanation whatsoever only using it to track down the Horcruxes. (Although this may be a case of JKR simply not caring about that detail)
In the Death Gate series second book, a race of... let's say, invulnerable giant golems, called the Titans, march across the huge planet, asking everyone they meet "Where is the fortress" and flying into Hulk Rage if they receive an answer along the lines of "I don't know". If the answer they get is "Ask that guy" or "Over there" they do just that - ask that guy, or go over there.
You'd Expect: At least one guy out of thousand queried would have answered along the lines of "At the bottom of the sea" or "inside a volcano" or "on the other side of the world", and then passed the information along to the rest of the population, rendering the Titans relatively harmless even for people who had no idea about the Secret Special Knowledge Lore that controlled them.
Instead: Nobody does, and most of the world's population is slaughtered, one bunch of morons at a time.
In the novel Dracula, the eponymous Count preys upon innocent Lucy, until the all-knowing Dr Van Helsing arrives. After Lucy dies, returns as a vampire, and is bloodily dispatched by the shaken heroes, Van Helsing and Mina Harker put together the scattered diary records and other clues to discern the villain behind it, and the group bands together to hunt down Dracula.
You'd expect - With Genre Savvy Van Helsing as their Obi Wan, they'd fully investigate anything and everything going on in and around their group that might be evidence of Dracula messing with them, and keep a close guard with full precautions (garlic, crucifixes, watching each other's sleep in shifts) on every member of their group.
Instead - They get so focused on gallantly tracking down and destroying Dracula's earth-boxes that they ignore the pleas and warnings of Renfield, despite knowing his connection to the Count, and being chivalrous Victorian chauvinists, leave Mina behind...alone...unprotected...while they do so. When she's suddenly pale, exhausted and shaken by recurring nightmares identical to Lucy's, they conclude that she's just tired from her 'unwomanly' exertions as part of their group. Several times they see a big black bat flapping about and don't realise who it is. Dumbasses.
- This is lampshaded by Dracula himself in Saberhagen's subversive retelling The Dracula Tape. Dracula confesses that he needed Mina's active assistance to throw Knight Templar Van Helsing and his proteges off his track without anyone (including Mina herself) getting killed, but points out the number of times he could have slaughtered the lot and borne his 'victim' away if he were the beast they hunted.
Frankenstein, makes this one Older Than Radio. The young scientist, after abandoning his Creature in a panic, goes back to his normal life and stubbornly pretends it never happened, even after mysterious murders begin to crop up all around him. When the monster confronts him and demands he build a mate in exchange for stopping his rampage, Frankenstein later realises the implications and destroys the mate, prompting the enraged Creature to swear to "rob him of his wedding night."
You'd expect - Frankenstein to realise, after the monster has systematically targeted his family and friends, that it's going to murder his beloved Elizabeth in revenge and either not marry the girl and send her somewhere as safe and as far from him as possible, or keep her under constant guard until the Creature was brought down. (Or, for that matter, just making a small snip when installing the fallopian tubes so as to ensure that there's no progeny.)
Instead - Frankenstein instantly assumes it's after him, calls in friends with guns to guard his house on said wedding night, and when he's startled out of the marital bed by a noise, arms up and rushes out into the night to confront the Creature, leaving Elizabeth alone and unguarded, with incredibly predictable results.
In Lord Of The Rings, the Big Bad Sauron can only be killed if one specific ring is thrown into one specific volcano, which happens to be in dead-smack-middle of his realm.
You'd expect- He'd have guards watching over every inch of it 24/7. All of his best troops, sent in groups of five, with the best armor and weaponry he had.
Instead- He leaves it completely unguarded, relying on Mordor's hostility alone to protect it while his armies are away. Sure the place stinks, but any really determined heroes can take advantage of the fact that he sent all his minions to battle an army immediately outside his own front door, rather than leaving some to guard Mount Doom. I mean, does it ever occur to him that the attack might be a distraction, because the good guys are outnumbered 10:1, at least.
However: In the book, it is specifically stated that Sauron couldn't even imagine anyone would be willing to simply walk into Mordor for a small chance of succeeding at giving up that kind of power. He's sort of right, since even Frodo can't do it by his own will in the end. What Sauron knows is, the ring went south from Rivendell, Rivendell being north of pretty much everything. Suddenly, Isildur's Heir and Galdalf become much more powerful, what with the summoning undead hordes and defeating Saruman and the leader of the Nazgul. A hobbit caught in the mountains can be explained away as a "strange bold spy" scouting the passes into Mordor. A small army sets out from Minas Tirith right to the Black Gate. Sauron concludes that Gandalf or Aragorn took the Ring, got arrogant, and thought they could beat him by strength of arms. As was the whole point of Gandalf's strategy, Sauron knows that he must destroy the entire army at all costs, lest the ring-bearer escape. Well, he had to lose somehow, didn't he?
In Lord Of The Rings, Aragorn has recruited a bunch of cursed ghosts whom only he can release from their undeath. They cannot be hurt by anyone. He is in the middle of a World War with Sauron.
You'd Expect: He'd agree to release them if they destroyed all of Sauron's armies, which they could.
Instead: He releases them after they won one battle for him. Then he leads an attack on Sauron with only human soldiers. Both those ghost guys would've sure been useful in attacking the Black Gate.
However: In the books, they don't actually attack anyone, they just scare the sailors into abandoning the black ships. Also, it would probably be a bad idea to lead an army of malevolent ghosts that you're only barely yoking to your will via a) an ancient pact and b) sheer willpower into Mordor, given that you would then a) be breaking your pact and b) going up against Sauron, who's at least as strong-willed as you and possessed of infinitely more experience in controlling the dead.
In Mistress of the Catacombs, the main characters have an enemy army landing on the island they are on.
You'd expect: They would use their massive advantage in warships to crush the enemy fleet as it lands troops.
Instead: They come up with a plan of confronting the larger force in a field battle, although they wind up negotiating a surrender.
The Sword Of Truth: The first book revolves around Richard's quest to keep the Big Bad from acquiring and activating an ancient artifact with the potential to destroy--or allow its user to enslave--any or all living beings, at his whim. The evil plan is eventually thwarted because Richard is the only person alive who knows how the artifact works, and he tricks the Big Bad into using it wrong and getting killed. This results in the artifact ending up in Richard's hands, along with gradually revealing that Richard is a natural-born wizard of unimaginable power, the secret heir to an ancient empire, the only person immune to the soul-destroying magic that prevents his love interest from ever experiencing true love, and the the one man designated by prophecy with the ability to save the world from the true BigBad, who makes his appearance a few books later. The real Big Bad, Emperor Jagang, has an immense evil army capable of effortlessly crushing all resistance from the free world.
You'd Expect: Richard would use the artifact to wipe them all out. He's certainly capable of it. He knows how to use it. He's seen the ritual to activate it performed in his presence. He has the artifact and all the necessary magical raw materials in his possession. And he's always going on about how big a threat the bad guys are to everyone who values life, freedom, reason and all the other Objectivist principles he and every single decent character in the series holds dear, and how it's necessary to destroy them at all costs, to avoid throwing the world into a Dark Age of indefinite duration.
Instead: He forgets all about it. It is never even mentioned as a possible resolution to the impending crisis, until the very end of the series, when it's handwaved away by the sudden discovery that the knowledge Richard had about the artifact was incorrect and would have killed him if he'd used it, which doesn't explain why he never tried to use it before he found this out. (This wouldn't have been nearly as bad as it is if Kahlan wasn't always gushing about how intelligent Richard is.) However, since we're talking about ~~an author~~ a character who spends pages justifying killing evil pacifists. A lack of rational thought is to be expected.
Animorphs: In one episode, Jake is taken over by a Yeerk. The rest of the Five Man Band figures this out pretty quickly, so they put him under lock and key in a remote cabin for the three days it takes for the Yeerk to starve without its Kandrona rays, and keep him under constant guard.
You'd Expect: The Yeerk turns Jake into a housefly and escapes. The Yeerk had full access to Jake's memories, and so would know that this is one of the morphs Jake possesses. A fly would have been small enough to avoid attracting attention, and in the two hours before he has to change back, he could have been several miles away, even at a fly's average speed of 3-4 mph.
Instead: He attempts to escape as a tiger, but gets lost. He tries a wolf morph, but gets stopped by a rival pack. He tries an ant, but gets thwarted by an enemy colony. He threatens to escape as a flea, but the others point out that he couldn't travel very far as a flea before he had to change back. He never even attempts the fly.
However if they were watching him constantly, they would have known the second he started morphing into a fly and acted appropriately.
The plot's progression in The Inheritance Trilogy pretty much relies on What an Idiot moments. For example, the rebellious Varden and their allies the elves are in possession of one of the few remaining dragon eggs, the other ones being held by the evil King Galbatorix. A dragon only hatches when in the presence of the one person who is destined to be its Rider. Naturally, everyone wants a turn hatching the dragon. It should be noted that the elves are essentially all ultra-powerful magic users. Also, the forest of the elves and the stronghold of the rebels are on opposite sides of the map, separated by a vast desert.
You'd Expect: The Varden uses magic to teleport the egg back and forth between hideouts. While the magic of the elfy forest prevents direct teleportation into its borders, dropping it off a few feet away from the border would work just as well.
Instead: The elves select their princess Arya to act as egg-courier. Once a year, she crosses all the distance between the two bases, on horseback, with two bodyguard Red Shirts for company, and brings the egg to whoever's turn it is to have it. Thus inviting all manner of trouble. Naturally, the book starts with the elf princess finally getting ambushed by the Big Bad's Dragon and teleporting the egg away just before she gets captured. The egg lands right into the hands of Eragon, farmboy and designated hero, thus allowing the story to begin.
However: For it to happen any other way would have required Paolini to come up with a plot point he didn't steal from Star Wars.
Shakespeare is not immune to this. At the end of Act 3, Scene 3, Hamlet has just received confirmation that his uncle Claudius did, in fact, kill Hamlet's father. Claudius is in a confessional, alone, praying desperately to God for repentance and mercy. He does not see Hamlet enter, dagger unsheathed, seeing the time ripe to avenge his father's death. Minor hindrance: as a man in prayer, if killed at that instance, Claudius would go to heaven. However, Claudius' prayer is insincere; he cannot feel remorse for his brother's murder.
You'd expect: Hamlet, like the son of a king, would alert Claudius out of his prayer and provoke him to a fight. When Claudius is enraged, swearing, and other damnable things, Hamlet skewers him. Hamlet, having convinced the whole court that he is insane, could probably get off with lifelong exile to England, or best case scenario, hailed as a hero.
Instead: Hamlet reasons that killing Claudius and sending him to heaven is not fair for Claudius killing King Hamlet and sending him to hell (having not received absolution for his sins.) He sits there for a while explaining this out to himself, and then, a Momma's Boy to the very end, he decides he shouldn't keep Queen Gertrude waiting and goes out to meet her. This results directly in Polonius' death, Ophelia's madness, and, well, you know the rest. Alas! (To be fair, Shakespeare might have thought this perfectly justified.)
In Anne McCaffery's Lyon's Pride, eldest son Isthian is ambushed and nearly killed by an unknown member of his expidition to explore an abandoned Hiver ship, after he's used all his personal energy to send a distress call to his Grandfather - also his boss - about what they found (viable Hiver eggs).
You'd Think: Once Thian's grandmother (The Rowan, a Prime talent stronger than every other T-rating in the entire fleet put together, save Thian) arrives on the scene, they'd simply round up the team members and grill them 'til they find out which one of them is trying to hide something, then either peel his mind like an orange to find the real story or, at the very least, ship him back to the relevant Naval authorities.
Instead: The assailant goes unknown for days while Thian recuperates (and his equally powerful younger brother and stronger mother arrive - making four talents on board capable of taking the ship apart by themselves), while they catch the occasional untrackable flash of hatred towards them. And they catch the guy with some insane stunt they'd used on a Jerk Ass cousin years ago. This troper still isn't sure what actually happened. The best I can describe it is that the brothers let out one giant mental shout, which pinged off the assassin's guilty conscience, causing him to lock up and fall over. Or something like that.
In the sixth Apprentice Adept book, Unicorn Point, wayward Tyke Bombs Flach and Nepe had just been located, after four years in hiding, meaning the parallel deals with the Contrary Citizens and Adverse Adepts for access to the all-powerful Oracle and Book of Magic were back in force.
You'd Think: The bad guys, who were only weeks away from irrevocably seizing power from Stile/Blue and their allies when the kids disappeared (as part of Stile/Blue's desperation plan to stall for time), would simply slap some sort of tracker on the kids to keep them from disappearing again, and simply count on their opponent's Lawful Stupid nature to deliver them the win.
Instead: The bad guys threaten Flach and Nepe with harm towards their mothers if they didn't follow their instructions. A threat which completely negated their deal with Mach and Bane (who happened to be, at this point, the single most dangerous people on both planets). Bad enough... but they also seemed to forget that Mach and Bane managed to finally track the kids down by listening in on their mental connection (The older men have a simil

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