History WhatAnIdiot / FireEmblem

** In the ''Golden Wildfire'', route, after Claude used a part of the Adrestian Imperial Army as cannon fodder so the army from Leicester could survive, the younger sister of the commander of that unit seeks revenge on Claude for what he did, and with her, she brings the Ashen Demon, who lives up to the name and kills every soldier in their way.\\
'''You’d Expect:''' Seeing the power of the Ashen Demon, everyone would take a stand back and be wary of engaging with them, especially after so many of their comrades have already fallen by their hand.\\

[[folder: Spin-offs]]

* ''WhatAnIdiot/FireEmblemThreeHouses''

[[folder: ''Fire Emblem: Three Houses'']]
* Multiple routes:
** The evil mage Solon decides to drive a whole bunch of villagers berserk as part of an experiment. The Knights of Seiros naturally take offense to this, and send Byleth and their students to investigate with Jeralt in tow. Solon confronts them...\\
'''You'd Expect:''' For Solon to confront them as himself.\\
'''Instead:''' He does so as [[spoiler:Tomas]] and reveals himself shortly into the battle, tossing away a perfectly good and extremely valuable disguise for no good reason.
** Due to the above idiocy from Solon, the protagonists are now aware that Garreg Mach has been infiltrated by people who can impersonate others through magic. Meanwhile, [[spoiler:the missing student Monica has somehow been found still alive over a year after her kidnapping at the hands of the very same organization who Solon belonged to. Her personality has completely changed, and she spends all her time getting close with the future Adrestian emperor.]]\\
'''You'd Expect:''' For Rhea or Seteth to investigate or apprehend the obvious impostor.\\
'''Instead:''' Nobody has any clue where to look for other moles.\\
'''The Result:''' [[spoiler:"Monica" (who's actually Kronya) kidnaps a bunch of students for an experiment to transform them into Demonic Beasts, and then backstabs Jeralt.]]
** In all versions of Chapter 14 other than Crimson Flower, Byleth and their allies take up residence at Garreg Mach Monastery. Randolph, a general of the Adrestian Empire, learns of this and decides to defeat them. He enjoys every possible strategic advantage in this situation; the monastery is ass-deep in Imperial or Empire-controlled territory and far away from any potential reinforcements, the only way to supply the monastery runs straight through his army, the monastery is on a mountaintop that will physically exhaust Byleth's troops if they try to come down and fight him, there is no safe avenue of retreat for Byleth's troops, and the heirs of every major noble house in either Faerghus or Leicester (including the heads of state) are trapped in the monastery and make for very valuable bargaining chips to force their nations to surrender.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Randolph to blockade the monastery, kick back, grab a bottle of champagne, and [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing wait until Byleth and their allies either starve to death or surrender]].\\
'''Instead:''' He throws away all of his advantages and charges straight into Byleth's waiting blades, due to a cheap taunt or sheer arrogance.\\
'''The Result:''' Randolph gets himself and all of his troops killed, the anti-Imperial forces score a major morale boost, and the war turns decisively against the Empire.\\
'''Even Worse:''' In the Azure Moon route, Dimitri orders Randolph to be captured, and subjugates Randolph through mental torture by pointing out that he is just as much of a blood-hungry beast as Dimitri is, and that he will personally execute his soldiers one by one so that he can see him break. Byleth then mercifully kills him, but the damage that Dimitri caused upon him was already done.
** In Chapter 17 of Azure Moon and Verdant Wind, [[TheEmpire Adrestia]], [[TheGoodKingdom Faerghus]], and [[TheAlliance Leicester]] forces march to Gronder Field to have a [[MeleeATrois big battle]]. Claude, leader of Leicester, is primarily concerned with defeating Adrestia and has nothing to gain by picking a fight with Faerghus, while Dimitri has a massive score to settle with Edelgard but also stands to gain nothing by picking a fight with Leicester. Whichever lord commands the third army (Claude on Azure Moon, Dimitri on Verdant Wind) proceeds to pick up the {{Conflict|Ball}} and {{Idiot Ball}}s:\\
'''You'd Expect:''' After Edelgard pulls [[HandWave some ill-explained trick]] to make it impossible for Claude to tell Adrestian forces from Faerghus forces, Azure Moon Claude to hang back for a bit and scope things out, and make good and damn sure he only attacks Imperial soldiers once he knows who's who.\\
'''Instead:''' He charges in and decides to attack indiscriminately.\\
'''You'd Also Expect:''' Verdant Wind Dimitri and his forces to ignore the Alliance and focus on the target of Dimitri's revenge, Edelgard.\\
'''Instead:''' Dimitri attacks Claude for no readily apparent reason beyond being a target of opportunity, and the Blue Lions just go along with this.\\
'''The Result:''' On the Azure Moon route, Claude and Hilda get the crap beaten out of them, and the non-recruited Leonie, Ignatz, Raphael, and Lysithea as well as several dozen nameless soldiers all get themselves pointlessly killed. On Verdant Wind, Dimitri, who is in complete crazy a-hole mode, ends up getting killed by Adrestian troops offscreen after using up his energy in pursuing Edelgard, and also, the non-recruited Felix, Annette, Mercedes, Sylvain, and Ingrid all end up dead too.
* ''Azure Moon'' route:
** On the Blue Lions route, Dimitri spends the second quarter of the game or so acting under the reasonable if circumstantial belief that the Flame Emperor was responsible for the Tragedy of Duscur four years prior. Eventually, he unmasks them and discovers that the Flame Emperor's true identity is Edelgard von Hresvelg.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Dimitri to stop and think for five seconds, and realize that the odds of the Flame Emperor being directly involved just got a whole lot worse considering she was a thirteen-year-old girl at the time.\\
'''Instead:''' He continues to believe Edelgard responsible, even after five years have passed. One wonders if his ''many'' mental issues damaged his logical reasoning skills until the wake-up call with Rodrigue's death.
** Upon the Blue Lions returning to Garreg Mach at the beginning of the time skip...\\
'''You'd Expect:''' One of the others, who compared to [[AxCrazy Dimitri]] are of sounder mind, to point out the flaw in his logic and make him see that his vengeance quest against [[spoiler: Edelgard]] is a senseless endeavor, or is at least directed at the wrong person. It's established that Dimitri's obsessive hate is detrimental to the army due to the risks he's willing to take and the fact that many of [[TheFriendNobodyLikes the forces are put off by his behaviour]], and while they didn't know her as personally as Dimitri did, they must have known that Edelgard was at least around their age based on interactions with her and her housemates. Heck, why not stage an intervention or act as Dimitri's therapist to help him sort out his mental problems?\\
'''Instead:''' Apparently having the [[SarcasmMode intelligence level]] of [[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing Gondorian Citadel Guard]], no one says anything and they all blindly follow Dimitri's whims, such as him having the army make a beeline for [[spoiler: Enbarr]] on what is essentially a {{suicide mission}} instead of recapturing Fhirdiad, saving their home and re-bolstering their forces for a better planned and equipped attack. While the player is given the option to suggest going to Fhirdiad first, Dimitri instantly shuts the idea down and everyone agrees. And on top of that, they treat his asshole behavior like it's an everyday normal thing and don't even think to try to help him get better mentally until after Rodrigue gets killed at the end of Chapter 17.
* ''Crimson Flower'' route:
** On the Crimson Flower route, after [[spoiler:King Dimitri’s death at the Tailtean Plains]], Rhea has been chased back to Fhirdiad with the Imperial Army in high tail behind her. Edelgard is willing to let Rhea surrender, but she has one final stand against the Black Eagle Strike Force; [[spoiler:light Fhirdiad on fire so they will burn inside]].\\
'''You’d Expect:''' That Rhea would decline Edelgard’s offer and tell her and her army that they have to enter the city if they hope to defeat her. And when they are inside, [[spoiler:THAT’S when Rhea orders the city to be set on fire, catching them by surprise]].\\
'''Instead:''' Rhea tells Catherine [[spoiler:to set Fhirdiad on fire right then and now, allowing the Black Eagle Strike Force to react to it from outside the city and then more easily traverse through the flames]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: ''Fire Emblem Engage'']]
* When Elusia declares war on Brodia, Morion decides to go into the battle headfirst. However, Diamant thinks that there's something fishy about this, and advises his dad to just stay put in Brodia and let him and Alear handle this.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Morion to follow his son's advice, watch over Brodia, and let Diamant and Alear take things from there. After all, there are bandits and zombies everywhere, and Morion's sons and some of Brodia's best warriors are off fighting a war. ''Somebody'' has to protect the country.\\
'''Or:''' If Morion ''really'' wants to go, he should at least travel alongside Alear for protection. After all, they're one of the most powerful beings in all of Elyos.\\
'''Instead:''' [[LeeroyJenkins Morion just rushes into battle before Alear and Diamant with very little protection]].\\
'''Even Worse:''' He leaves his Emblem Ring--his one and only trump card--with Diamant, [[HonorBeforeReason wishing to fight his enemies fairly.]] [[IDontThinkThatsSuchAGoodIdea Even Alear points out that there's no guarantee the enemy would be as noble as Morion.]]
'''The Result:''' It ''was'' a trap after all, and Hyacinth doesn't hesitate to use the opportunity to kill Morion. And to top it all off, Morion gets zombified as a mindless Corrupted shortly after.
* At the end of Chapter 10, Sombron is revived due to Morion's sovereign blood and betrays Hyacinth, literally eating him further empower him. The mysterious hooded girl who killed Lumera in Chapter 3 is revealed to be Veyle in her evil split personality, who is also revealed to be Sombron's daughter. After the Four Hounds also introduce themselves as the baddies working for Sombron, before Alear and the gang get ready to fight their way out, Veyle promptly steals the Emblem Rings Alear had up to this point (Marth, Sigurd, Celica, Michiah, Roy and Leif), as well as the Draconic Time Crystal.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That upon realizing this, Alear to go up and take the rings and the time crystal back from Veyle by force before she gives them to Sombron.\\
'''Instead:''' Alear just stands there like a dumb scared child and even ''begs'' her to give them back.\\
'''End Result:''' Veyle gives the rings to Sombron, who promptly corrupts the Emblems into mindless [[DumbStruck non-vocal]] Dark Emblems, causing Alear to lose their only chance to save the Emblems there and now.
** On the subject, as Sombron devours Hyacinth, Elusia's Emblem Ring, the Ring of the Lady of the Plains (Lyn, the Emblem of Blazing) is either dropped or spat out by Sombron.\\
'''You'd Think:''' Evil Veyle would also secure Emblem Lyn's ring as well. That way, she gets Sombron to reawaken Lyn as a Dark Emblem that she can give to one of her Corrupted goons.\\
'''Instead:''' She overlooks it.\\
'''As a Result:''' Zelkov, one of Ivy's retainers and a thief, steals it from under Veyle's nose along with the Ring of the Princess Exalt (Lucina, the Emblem of Awakening), and as Ivy, Kagetsu and Zelkov join Alear's party as they retreat in Chapter 11, Lyn and Lucina are re-awakened as regular Emblem allies, offering support to the group as they get help from Solm in getting the Rings of the Radiant Hero (Ike) and Crux of Fate (Corrin).
* Chapter 17 has quite a few.
** At the beginning of the chapter Veyle's evil personality takes over her again after Zephia explains about the split personality aspect to Alear. Evil Veyle tells Zephia to give her the stolen Rong of the Hero King so that she can use Emblem Marth. She is given the ring.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Alear to take this opportunity and steal the Ring of the Hero King back from Evil Veyle while she monologues, and reawaken Marth back to regular Emblem mode, immediately bringing the ring count advantage back to the heroes.\\
'''Instead:''' Alear never thinks of doing this and doesn't get Marth back at the end of the chapter.
** At the end of the chapter, the Four Hounds end up losing Leif's ring to Alear and friends after Hyacinth is put down as a [[RevenantZombie revenant Corrupted]] and the Hounds make a retreat from Fierene. While they are on the boats, Veyle and the Hounds start thinking up a new strategy as to how to divide the rings that they still have. Veyle suggests that Zephia gives Sigurd's ring to her.]]\\
'''You'd Think:''' That Zephia would hesitate in giving Veyle the ring. Due to Veyle's SplitPersonality, there's no telling when they'll switch, and Good Veyle is very likely to use Sigurd's ring to help Alear. They can tell which Veyle is in control based on her voice and eye color, so the Hounds should know which Veyle is in control. Zephia herself should know this better than anyone, considering that she created Evil Veyle to begin with. It would make the most sense for Zephia to tell Veyle the circumstances, and advise that they give Sigurd's ring to a Corrupted instead.\\
'''Instead:''' Zephia just gives Veyle the ring with little hesitation.\\
'''The Result:''' Good Veyle proceeds to throw it to Alear, giving Alear and friends a good advantage over the Hounds, as they now have eight rings while they only have four.
* In Chapter 21, Sombron appears and tells Veyle, whose MindControlDevice helmet was damaged by Marni before she was killed by Zephia, to claim the rest of the Emblem Rings at once, and she completely refuses due to being in her regular personality rather than her evil one. Sombron then declares her no longer useful and decides to try to kill her with an energy breath attack; Alear [[TakingTheBullet takes the attack]], and eventually dies from their wounds before they could explain to Veyle that they were also her older brother/sister.\\
'''You'd Then Expect:''' Sombron to either:\\
A) Since he already declared her to no longer have any value to him, for Sombron to kill Veyle anyway, making Alear's TakingTheBullet moment a SenselessSacrifice in which they have died for nothing.\\
B) If he still wants to keep Veyle alive due to her evil split personality, to destroy Alear's body (like say, smash it into LudicrousGibs or incinerate it into a pile of ash) so that they can't be revived in any way. Even without knowing about the Emblems' "Miracle", Veyle could've potentially revived Alear as a RevenantZombie Corrupted.\\
C) Heck, why not make Alear into a mindless Corrupted like he did with King Morion? Another expendable pawn to break the party.\\
D) Or even just eat Alear's corpse and gain more power from their blood like he did with Hyacinth in Chapter 10.\\
'''Instead:''' Sombron never thinks of any of these options and just explains to Veyle - just to break her - that Alear was her sibling all this time before using the Emblem Rings to gain infinite power and raise Gradlon from the sea.\\
'''As A Result:''' While Evil Veyle does takes over again thanks to Sombron's growing power reactivating the broken helmet and tries to finish off Alear's party with a bunch of Corrupted, in the AfterlifeAntechamber, Alear convinces Veyle to return to her body (which was never "dead" to begin), and expel her evil personality for good. Regular Veyle then revives Alear as a RevenantZombie Corrupted, and proceeds re-summon the Emblems after Sombron already used the rings earlier. Unfortunately, Alear ends up dying again from running out of juice from re-summoning the Emblems. Thankfully, Alear gets revived by the re-summoned Emblems giving them their power and revives Alear as the 13th Emblem: the Fire Emblem, giving the heroes a fighting chance to stop Sombron.
[[/folder]]

''[[ https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Franchise/FireEmblem]]'' is a Strategy RPG series centered on making smart, calculated decisions to ensure the best possible outcome in battle while saving as many of your units' lives as possible. But, like the player, a character will occaisionally make an utterly boneheaded move that ends up costing them dearly.

[[''Franchise/Fire Emblem'']] is a Strategy RPG series centered on making smart, calculated decisions to ensure the best possible outcome in battle while saving as many of your units' lives as possible. But, like the player, a character will occaisionally make an utterly boneheaded move that ends up costing them dearly.

''Franchise/Fire Emblem'' is a Strategy RPG series centered on making smart, calculated decisions to ensure the best possible outcome in battle while saving as many of your units' lives as possible. But like the player, a character will occaisionally make an utterly boneheaded move that ends up costing them dearly.

'''The Result:''' On the Azure Moon route, Claude and Hilda get the crap beaten out of them, and the non-recruited Leonie, Ignatz, Raphael, and Lysithea as well as several dozen nameless soldiers all get themselves pointlessly killed. On Verdant Wind, Dimitri, who is in complete crazy a-hole mode, ends up getting killed by Adrestian troops offscreen after using up his energy in pursuing Edelgard, and also, the non-recruited Felix, Mercedes, Sylvain, and Ingrid all end up dead too.

'''End Result:''' Veyle gives the rings to Sombron, who promptly corrupts the Emblems into mindless [[DumbStruck non-vocal]] Dark Emblems, causing Alear to lose their only chance to save the Emblems.

'''Instead:''' Sombron never thinks of any of these options and [[spoiler: just explains to Veyle - just to break her - that Alear was her sibling all this time before using the Emblem Rings to gain infinite power and raise Gradlon from the sea.\\

** In Chapter 17 of both Azure Moon and Verdant Wind, [[TheEmpire Adrestia]], [[TheGoodKingdom Faerghus]], and [[TheAlliance Leicester]] forces march to Gronder Field to have a [[MeleeATrois big battle]]. Claude, leader of Leicester, is primarily concerned with defeating Adrestia and has nothing to gain by picking a fight with Faerghus. Edelgard pulls [[HandWave some ill-explained trick]] to make it impossible for Claude to tell Adrestian forces from Faerghus forces.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Claude to hang back for a bit and scope things out, and make good and damn sure he only attacks Imperial soldiers once he knows who's who.\\

'''The Result:''' On the ''Azure Moon'' route, he and Hilda get the crap beaten out of them, and the non-recruited Leonie, Ignatz, Raphael, and Lysithea as well as several dozen nameless soldiers all get themselves pointlessly killed. On Verdant Wind, while he does cause Edelgard to route, Dimitri, who is also in complete crazy a-hole mode in that route as well, ends up getting killed by Adrestian troops offscreen after using up his energy in pursuing Edelgard, and also, the non-recruited Felix, Mercedes, Sylvain, Anette and Ingrid all end up dead too.

** Upon the Blue Lions returning to Garreg Mach at the beginning of the time skip,\\

'''Instead:''' Apparantly having the [[SarcasmMode intelligence level]] of [[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing Gondorian Citadel Guard]], no one says anything and they all blindly follow Dimitri's whims, such as him having the army make a beeline for [[spoiler: Enbarr]] on what is essentially a {{suicide mission}} instead of recapturing Fhirdiad, saving their home and re-bolstering their forces for a better planned and equipped attack. While the player is given the option to suggest going to Fhirdiad first, Dimitri instantly shuts the idea down and everyone agrees. And on top of that, they treat his asshole behavior like it's an everyday normal thing and don't even think to try to help him get better mentally until after Rodrigue gets killed at the end of Chapter 17.

** On the Crimson Flower route, after [[spoiler:King Dimitri’s death at the Tailtean Plains]], Rhea has been chased back to Fhirdiad with the Imperial Army in high tail behind her. Edelgard is willing to let Rhea surrender, but she has one final stand against the Black Eagle Strike Force; [[spoiler:lit Fhirdiad on fire so they will burn inside]].\\

* At the end of Chapter 10, Sombron is revived due to Morion's sovereign blood and betrays Hyacinth, literally eating him further empower him. The myserious hooded girl who killed Lumera in Chapter 3 is revealed to be Veyle in her evil split personality, who is also revealed to be Sombron's daughter. After the Four Hounds also introduce themselves as the baddies working for Sombron, before Alear and the gang get ready to fight their way out, Veyle promptly steals the Emblem Rings Alear had up to this point (Marth, Sigurd, Celica, Michiah, Roy and Leif), as well as the Draconic Time Crystal.\\

** On the subject, as Sombron devoured Hyacinth, Elusia's Emblem Ring, The Ring of the Lady of the Plains (Lyn, The Emblem of Blazing) is either dropped or spat out by Sombron.\\

'''As a Result:''' Zelkov, one of Ivy's retainers and a thief, steals it from under Veyle's nose along with the Ring of the Princess Exault (Lucina, The Emblem of Awakening), and as Ivy, Kagetsu and Zelkov join Alear's party as they retreat in Chapter 11, Lyn and Lucina are re-awakened as regular Emblem allies, offering support to the group as they get help from Solm in getting the Rings of the Radiant Hero (Ike) and Crux of Fate (Corrin).

'''You'd Expect:''' Alear to take this opportunity and steal the Ring of the Hero King back from Evil Veyle while she monologues, and reawaken Marth back to regular Emblem mode, immediatly brining the ring count advantage back to the heroes.\\

** At the end of the chapter, The Four Hounds end up losing Leif's ring to Alear and friends after Hyacinth is put down as a [[RevenantZombie revanent Corrupted]] and the Hounds make a retreat from Fierene. While they are on the boats, Veyle and the Hounds start thinking up a new strategy as to how to divide the rings that they still have. Veyle suggests that Zephia gives Sigurd's ring to her.]]\\

'''The Result:''' Zephia ends up giving the ring to Good Veyle, who then proceeds to throw it to Alear. Zephia then furiously [[BitchSlap slaps]] [[WouldHurtAChild Veyle]] for insubordination. This gives Alear and friends a good advantage over the Hounds, as they now have eight rings while they only have four.

'''As A Result:''' While Evil Veyle does takes over again thanks to Sombron's growing power reactivating the broken helmet and tries to finish off Alear's party with a bunch of Corrupted, in the AfterlifeAntechamber, Alear convinces Veyle to return to her body (which was never "dead" to begin), and expel her evil personality for good. Regular Veyle then revives Alear as a RevenantZombie Corrupted, and proceeds re-summon the Emblems after Sombron already used the rings earlier. Unfortunately, Alear ends up dying again from running out of juice from re-summoning the Emblems. Thankfully, Alear gets revived by the re-summoned Emblems giving them their power and revives Alear as the 13th Emblem: The Fire Emblem, giving the heroes a fighting chance to stop Sombron.

** A DemonicPossession-afflicted Darios has Yelena hostage and wants the heroes to surrender, asking Rowan and Lianna to throw down their weapons, to which they do.\\

'''Instead:''' He continues to believe Edelgard responsible, even after five years have passed. One wonders if his ''many'' mental issues damaged his logical reasoning skills until the wake-up call with Rodrigue's death.\\
** Upon the Blue Lions returning to Garreg Mach at the beginning of the time skip,
'''You'd Expect:''' One of the others, who compared to [[AxCrazy Dimitri]] are of sounder mind, to point out the flaw in his logic and make him see that his vengeance quest against [[spoiler: Edelgard]] is a senseless endeavor, or is at least directed at the wrong person. It's established that Dimitri's obsessive hate is detrimental to the army due to the risks he's willing to take and the fact that many of [[TheFriendNobodyLikes the forces are put off by his behaviour]], and while they didn't know her as personally as Dimitri did, they must have known that Edelgard was at least around their age based on interactions with her and her housemates. Heck, why not stage an intervention or act as Dimitri's therapist to help him sort out his mental problems.\\

You'd Expect: Alear to take this opportunity and steal the Ring of the Hero King back from Evil Veyle while she monologues, and reawaken Marth back to regular Emblem mode, immediatly brining the ring count advantage back to the heroes.\\
Instead: Alear never thinks of doing this and doesn't get Marth back at the end of the chapter.\\

'''As A Result:''' While Evil Veyle does takes over again thanks to Sombron's growing power reactivating the broken helmet and tries to finish off Alear's party with a bunch of Corrupted, in the AfterlifeAntechamber, Alear convinces Veyle to return to her body (which was never "dead" to begin), and expel her evil personality for good. Regular Veyle then revives Alear as a RevanentZombie Corrupted, and proceeds re-summon the Emblems after Sombron already used the rings earlier. Unfortunatly, Alear ends up dying again from running out of juice from re-summoning the Emblems. Thankfully, Alear gets revived by the re-summoned Emblems giveing them their power and revives Alear as the 13th Emblem: The Fire Emblem, giving the heroes a fighting chance to stop Sombron.

'''The Result:''' [[spoiler:It ''was'' a trap after all, and Hyacinth doesn't hesitate to use the opportunity to kill Morion. And to top it all off, Morion gets zombified as a mindless Corrupted shortly after.]]
* At the end of Chapter 10, Sombron is revived due to Morion's sovereign blood and betrays Hyacinth, literally eating him further empower him. The myserious hooded girl who killed Lumera in Chapter 3 is revealed to be Veyle in her evil split personality, who is also revealed to be Sombron's daughter. After the Four Hounds also introduce themselves as the baddies working for Sombron, before Alear and the gang get ready to fight their way out, Veyle promptly steals the Emblem Rings Alear had up to this point (Marth, Sigurd, Celica, Michiah, Roy and Leif), as well as the Draconic Time Crystal.

You'd Think: Evil Veyle would also secure Emblem Lyn's ring as well. That way, she gets Sombron to reawaken Lyn as a Dark Emblem that she can give to one of her Corrupted goons.\\
Instead: She overlooks it.\\
As a Result: Zelkov, one of Ivy's retainers and a thief, steals it from under Veyle's nose along with the Ring of the Princess Exault (Lucina, The Emblem of Awakening), and as Ivy, Kagetsu and Zelkov join Alear's party as they retreat in Chapter 11, Lyn and Lucina are re-awakened as regular Emblem allies, offering support to the group as they get help from Solm in getting the Rings of the Radiant Hero (Ike) and Crux of Fate (Corrin).

DarthWiki/WhatAnIdiot in ''Franchise/FireEmblem''.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'':
** There's a loyal, honorable knight named Eldigan who is best friends with [[TheHero Sigurd]] and vassal of King Chagall. Chagall, meanwhile, is in league with the BigBad and murdered his father to ascend the throne. After dismissing his sister's concerns over this, Eldigan tries to talk Chagall into not attacking Sigurd and is thrown into the dungeon for his trouble until Sigurd rescues him.\\

** [[RoyalBrat King Chagall]] himself counts, part of Eldigan's problem being underestimating his liege's stupidity. Eldigan has sworn an eternal oath of loyalty to the royal family, which Chagall is the last remaining heir of. Eldigan's loyalty is further proven when he saves Chagall from certain death despite Chagall imprisoning him moments before. As Chagall's forces fall, Eldigan and his men are the King's last line of defense, with Grannvale rapidly advancing. Eldigan advises Chagall to do a TacticalWithdrawal of the remaining troops and do a treaty with Grannvale in the hopes of reclaiming Agustria in the future after rebuilding their forces.\\

** At the end of the game, Julius and Manfroy have captured Julia. Julia bears major Naga blood and is the only person capable of wielding the Naga tome, the one thing that can put Loptous in the ground where he belongs.\\

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'':
** In Chapter 3, Roy turns up at Araphen with a small amount of plucky but low-level fighters (and [[CrutchCharacter a really old Paladin]]) while Narcian, King Zephiel, and Idunn (the FinalBoss) are still there. The King and his forces have just finished sacking the place to squash the Lycian League.\\

** In Chapter 4, the Lycian Army marches to Laus, a former member of the Lycian League and one of Bern's new allies. This is where Narcian is coincidentally found.\\

** Chapter 13 starts with Bern forming an alliance with Etruria thanks to the traitorous nobles within the kingdom. Together they push back the remaining loyalists, led by Cecilia, to a corner. Zephiel then personally delivers a CurbStompBattle to Cecilia while successfully retrieving Guinevere and the Fire Emblem from Cecilia's protection.\\

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'':
** King Fado gave his children Eirika and Ephraim bracelets that function as a twin key to the nation's Sacred Stone, a powerful artifact that is one part of a seal on the Demon King. He entrusts the knight Seth with the secret and orders him to escape with Eirika when Grado invades. While on the run, a thief nabs the bracelet and Seth insists that they go take it back.\\

** Emperor Vigarde of Grado has a long illness and then abruptly gets "better", except now he is callous, malicious, and orders an ambush on a longstanding ally for no apparent reason (imagine if the United States declared war on Canada tomorrow for a comparison). Naturally he expects this to be carried out by Grado's three top generals.\\

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'':
** Prior to Chapter 2, the player character is introduced to Chrom's militia, the Shepherds. During that scene, Vaike gives out a loud burp and disgusts one of the other Shepherds, Maribelle, who leaves the room in a huff and misses the news that they are going on a diplomatic mission to Regna Ferox.\\

** This one's a twofer. At the start of Chapter 13, the party meets with Validar to discuss Plegia offering support against Valm. Assisting Validar is the Hierophant, [[spoiler:(i.e. future Grima's vessel) who is a dead-ringer for the Avatar.]]\\

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'':

** In ''Revelation'', Xander and Leo overhear Garon laughing about how he plans to burn the continent to the ground. Xander asks what's wrong.\\

* ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia]]'':
** At the end of Chapter 4, [[TheHero Alm]] and his army are right outside the gates of Rigel Castle, and [[TinTyrant Rudolf]] is marching out to meet him. In comes his nephew [[WellDoneSonGuy Berkut]], who demands to be put on the front lines. Note that Rudolf knows [[spoiler:that his ThanatosGambit is about to come to fruition]] and this is almost certainly the last conversation he will ever have with his nephew.\\

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'':

** On the Blue Lions route, Dimitri spends the second quarter of the game or so acting under the reasonable if circumstantial belief that the Flame Emperor was responsible for the Tragedy of Duscur four years prior. Eventually, he unmasks them and discovers that the Flame Emperor's true identity is [[spoiler:Edelgard von Hresvelg]].\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Dimitri to stop and think for five seconds, and realize that the odds of the Flame Emperor being directly involved just got a whole lot worse considering [[spoiler:she was a thirteen-year-old girl at the time]].\\
'''Instead:''' He continues to believe they were responsible, even after five years have passed. One wonders if his ''many'' mental issues damaged his logical reasoning skills until the wake-up call with [[spoiler: Rodrigue's death]].\\
'''You'd Also Expect:''' One of the others, who compared to [[AxCrazy Dimitri]] are of sounder mind, to point out the flaw in his logic and make him see that his vengeance quest against [[spoiler: Edelgard]] is a senseless endeavor, or is at least directed at the wrong person. It's established that Dimitri's obsessive hate is detrimental to the army due to the risks he's willing to take and the fact that many of [[TheFriendNobodyLikes the forces are put off by his behaviour]], and while they didn't know [[spoiler: her]] as personally as Dimitri did, they must have known that [[spoiler: Edelgard]] was at least around their age based on interactions with [[spoiler: her]] and [[spoiler: her]] housemates.\\
'''Instead:''' No one says anything and they all blindly follow Dimitri's whims, such as him having the army make a beeline for [[spoiler: Enbarr]] on what is essentially a {{suicide mission}} instead of recapturing Fhirdiad, saving their home and re-bolstering their forces for a better planned and equipped attack. While the player is given the option to suggest going to Fhirdiad first, Dimitri instantly shuts the idea down and everyone agrees.

** In Azure Moon Chapter 17, [[TheEmpire Adrestia]], [[TheGoodKingdom Faerghus]], and [[TheAlliance Leicester]] forces march to Gronder Field to have a [[MeleeATrois big battle]]. Claude, leader of Leicester, is primarily concerned with defeating Adrestia and has nothing to gain by picking a fight with Faerghus. Edelgard pulls [[HandWave some ill-explained trick]] to make it impossible for Claude to tell Adrestian forces from Faerghus forces.\\

'''The Result:''' He and Hilda get the shit beaten out of them, and the non-recruited Leonie, Ignatz, Raphael, and Lysithea as well as several dozen nameless soldiers all get themselves pointlessly killed.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage'':
** When Elusia declares war on Brodia, Morion decides to go into the battle headfirst. However, Diamant thinks that there's something fishy about this, and advises his dad to just stay put in Brodia and let him and Alear handle this.\\

'''The Result:''' [[spoiler:It ''was'' a trap after all, and Hyacinth doesn't hesitate to use the opportunity to kill Morion. And to top it all off, Morion gets revived as a Corrupted shortly after.]]
** Chapter 17 ends with [[spoiler:The Hounds losing Leif's ring to Alear and friends and retreating. While they are on the boats, Veyle and the Hounds start thinking up a new strategy as to how to divide the rings that they still have. Veyle suggests that Zephia gives Sigurd's ring to her.]]\\
'''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler:Zephia to hesitate in giving Veyle the ring. Due to Veyle's SplitPersonality, there's no telling when they'll switch, and Good Veyle is very likely to use Sigurd's ring to help Alear. They can tell which Veyle is in control based on her voice and eye color, so the Hounds should know which Veyle is in control. Zephia herself should know this better than anyone, considering that she created Evil Veyle to begin with. It would make the most sense for Zephia to tell Veyle the circumstances, and advise that they give Sigurd's ring to a Corrupted instead.]]\\
'''Instead:''' [[spoiler:Zephia just gives Veyle the ring with little hesitation.]]\\
'''The Result:''' [[spoiler:Zephia ends up giving the ring to Good Veyle, who then proceeds to throw it to Alear. This gives Alear and friends a good advantage over the Hounds, as they now have eight rings while they only have four.]]
** In Chapter 21, [[spoiler: Sombron appears and tells Veyle, whose MindControlDevice helmet was damaged by Marni before she was killed by Zephia, to claim the rest of the Emblem Rings at once, and she completely refuses due to being in her regular personality rather than her evil one. Sombron then declares her no longer useful and decides to try to kill her with an energy breath attack; Alear [[TakingTheBullet takes the attack]], and eventually dies from their wounds before they could explain to Veyle that they were also her older brother/sister]].\\

A) Since he already declared her to no longer have any value to him, [[spoiler: for Sombron kill Veyle anyway, making Alear's TakingTheBullet moment a SenselessSacrifice in which they have died for nothing]].\\
B) [[spoiler: If he still wants to keep Veyle alive due to her evil split personality, to destroy Alear's body (like say, smash it into LudicrousGibs or incinerate it into a pile of ash) so that they can't be revived in any way. Even without knowing about the Emblems' "Miracle", Veyle could've potentially revived Alear as a RevenantZombie Corrupted]].\\
C) Heck, [[spoiler: why not make Alear into a mindless Corrupted like he did with King Morion? Another expendable pawn to break the party]].\\
'''Instead:''' Sombron never thinks of any of these options and [[spoiler: just explains to Veyle - just to break her - that Alear was her sibling all this time before using the Emblem Rings to gain infinite power and raise Gradlon from the sea]].\\
'''As A Result:''' [[spoiler: While Evil Veyle takes over again and tries to finish off Alear's party with a bunch of Corrupted, in the AfterlifeAntechamber, Alear convinces Veyle to return to her body (which was never "dead" to begin) and revive Alear as a RevanentZombie Corrupted and re-summon the Emblems after Sombron already used the rings earlier, which, after Alear ends up dying again from running out of juice from re-summoning the Emblems, gets revived by the re-summoned Emblems given them their power and revives Alear as the 13th Emblem: The Fire Emblem]].

** [[spoiler:A DemonicPossession-afflicted Darios has Yelena hostage]] and wants the heroes to surrender.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Him to demand everyone lay down their weapons.\\
'''Instead:''' He only forces Rowan and Lianna to do so.\\
'''The Result:''' When the inevitable ILied happens, Takumi shoots him and allows the twins to recover their weapons and disable him. Quoth Takumi: "How dumb are you, [[spoiler:Darios]]?"
** [[spoiler:After finally beating Darios in the following chapter, he asks for the twins to kill him before Velezark can fully revive; the reasoning given is that by doing so, [[SealedEvilInACan Velezark would be sealed inside of his body]], unable to do anything or hurt anybody.]]\\
'''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler:That the twins put aside their friendship with Darios for just a few moments and honor his request to strike him down. With how dangerous dragons like [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Grima]] and [[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Anankos]] have been in the past, it's in their best interests to take the pragmatic route and deliver the killing blow to their friend so that millions of others will be saved. Failing that, one of their friends could step in and offer to do the deed before Velezark comes back to life; there's nothing saying that ''Rowan and Lianna'' have to be the ones to slay Darios, and it's not like anybody else trusts him at that moment.]]\\
'''Instead:''' [[spoiler:They refuse to kill Darios and insist that [[TakeAThirdOption there]] ''[[TakeAThirdOption must]]'' [[TakeAThirdOption be a third option]] in spite of the fact that Darios has attempted to kill them several times already under Velezark's influence. There's also the fact that there isn't any clear options available to them other than killing Darios, nor do they ever consider asking their friends to do it for them (for that matter, nobody seems in a hurry to [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim just plunge a sword or an arrow through his jugular and avoid the deliberation entirely]]).]]\\
'''The Result:''' [[spoiler:One revived Chaos Dragon primed to completely obliterate the world and many others, ready for service! [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice job not sacrificing your friend for the greater good, heroes!]]]]\\
'''Even Worse:''' [[spoiler:[[ShootTheShaggyDog Darios is killed immediately following Velezark's revival anyway]] [[HeroicSacrifice while attempting to save the twins from getting killed themselves]], rendering Rowan and Lianna's efforts to try and save him completely null and void.]]

** In Chapter 21, [[spoiler: Sombron appears and tells Veyle, whose MindControlDevice helmet was damaged by Marni before she was killed by Zephia, to claim the rest of the Emblem Rings at once, to which she completly refuses due to being in her regular personality rather than her evil one. Sombron then declares her no longer useful and decides to try to kill her with an energy breath attack, to which Alear [[TakingTheBullet takes the attack]], and eventually dies from their wounds before they could explain to Veyle that they were also her older brother/sister]].\\

A) Since he already declared her no longer having any value to him, [[spoiler: for Sombron kill Veyle anyway, making Alear's TakingTheBullet moment a SenselessSacrifice in which they have died for nothing]].\\

'''Instead:''' Morion rushes into battle before Alear and Diamant with very little protection.\\

B) [[spoiler: If he still wants to keep Veyle alive due to her evil split personality, to destroy Alear's body (like say, smash it into LudicrousGibs or incinerate it into a pile of ash) so that it can't be revived in any way. Even without knowing about the Emblems' "Miracle", Veyle could've potentially revived Alear as a RevenantZombie Corrupted]].\\

'''The Result:''' [[spoiler:Zephia ends up giving the ring to Good Veyle, who then proceeds to throw it to Alear. This gives Alear and friends a good advantage over the Hounds, as they have eight rings while they only have four.]]