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A number of books have characters who do such stupid things that you'd wish you could've helped the author write the story to make the characters act more sensibly.

Literature series that have their own pages:


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    Literature A-F 
  • Across the Green Grass Fields: Regan knows that her best friend Laurel is intensely judgemental and has permanently shunned other girls for even the slightest hint of not being a "proper girl". The narration emphasises how carefully she has avoided ever risking Laurel's disapproval all her life. Then Regan finds out that she's intersex, and even Regan's first panicked reaction is "I'm a boy?" before she's reassured.
    You'd Expect: That she would never tell Laurel anything that so obviously set her apart
    Instead: She immediately tells Laurel that she's XY, and Laurel reacts exactly as badly as one would expect.
  • The Aeneid: Aeneas makes a pitstop on the road to his destiny to fool around with Queen Dido. The gods give him a wake-up call and tell him to get the lead out.
    You'd Expect: Aeneas to explain to Dido "It's not you, baby, it's my destiny. If it were up to me, I would stick around, but the gods told me I have to go, so I don't have a choice."
    Instead: He wants to deliver the news when the time is right, so he has his men prepare the ships ahead of time, while he's waiting for the opportune moment. She catches him, and he tells her about what he has to do... and tells her to stop bitching and deal with it. Thereby creating the very Woman Scorned he was trying to avoid. Not only that, but instead of saying "If it were up to me, I'd stick around," he says "If it were up to me, I'd still be in Troy, tending graves!"
  • Aesop's Fables:
    • The Tortoise and the Hare: A hare bullies a tortoise. Why? The hare is faster than the tortoise. Eventually, the tortoise challenges the hare to a race. The hare accepts, and during the race, gains a solid lead but becomes tired.
      You'd Expect: The hare slows down for breath, but keeps going and wins the race before taking a nap.
      Instead: The hare takes a nap in the middle of the race, hubris telling him the tortoise is so slow that he can still win this way. It actually makes him lose, because the tortoise is already at the line by the time he arrives.
    • A Dog and Its Reflection: A dog is carrying something. It can be a bone it stole or even a piece of meat, take what you will. The dog comes to a stream and looks down, seeing something in the water. It's its reflection.
      You'd Expect: The dog to know what a reflection is, and move on.
      Instead: It automatically thinks the reflection is another dog carrying a better item. It moves to bark at it and drops its item.
    • The Boy Who Cried Wolf: A boy is watching sheep and becomes bored.
      You'd Expect: He'd kill time playing with the lambs or something.
      Instead: He decides to trick the local villagers into believing there are wolves attacking the sheep. It works when it's all Blatant Lies, but when the situation is real... well, you probably get it by now.
    • The Fox and the Stork:
      • The fox invites the stork to dinner, but serves soup in shallow dishes the stork can't easily drink from.
        You'd Expect: The stork to point out that she can't eat her soup, forcing the fox to find her a bowl or jug for her or seem unnecessarily rude.
        Instead: The stork doesn't eat her soup, and the fox pretends to believe she doesn't like it so he gets a second portion.
      • In return, the stork invites the fox to dinner, but serves her soup in tall jugs the fox can't drink from.
        You'd Expect: The fox to tip the jug towards himself so he can drink the soup. If the stork objects to this, he can reasonably point out that she's provided him with a jug he can't drink from. If she says that he did the same thing to her, he can say that since she never complained, he assumed there was no problem.
        Instead: The fox does nothing, and so doesn't get any soup.
    • The Fox and the Weasel: A lean and hungry fox slips through a narrow hole in a wall to find a bag of cornnote . Dinner time!
      You'd Expect: The fox to remember that the hole is a narrow one, and eat its fill in small quantities.
      Instead: It gorges itself on the corn in one go, and becomes too fat to slip back through the hole to freedom. It is forced to spend days stuck there before it loses enough weight to escape, all the while a weasel mocks it for its predicament.
    • The Man and the Satyr: In winter, a man and a satyr become friends. The man blows on his hands, and when the satyr asks about this, the man explains that he does so to warm his hands up. When they sit down to eat, the food is too hot to consume right away. The man thus blows on his food, and again the satyr questions him about it. The man replies that he does this to cool his food down.
      You'd Expect: The satyr would do this with his own food.
      Instead: The satyr does not trust somebody whose breath comes in both hot and cold, and so he no longer wants to be friends with the man.
  • Alex Rider:
    • In the third book, Alex is given a mission to accompany CIA agents Turner and Troy as they sneak onto the island of Skeleton Key, which happens to belong to Cuba. They plan to go through a heavily-policed airport, and it's very likely that their belongings will be searched.
      You'd Expect: Turner and Troy to have made sure that nothing in their luggage suggests that they're American spies.
      Instead: There's a receipt from the same location as the CIA's main headquarters in one of Turner's shirt pockets. As a result, the disguise is quickly blown.
    • Crocodile Tears has Journalist Harry Bulman planning to do an exposé about MI6's use of a teenage spy. He goes to Alex's house to try and persuade him to co-operate, despite not really caring about what Alex wants in the matter. Alex refuses to take part, not wanting to endure the media attention that would inevitably result.
      You'd Expect: Bulman to assure Alex that he'll respect his wishes, and go ahead and make the story public once he gets the chance. By the time Alex or MI6 realize what's happened, it'll be too late for them to do anything about it.
      Instead: He flat-out tells Alex that he'll run the story anyway, prompting Alex to turn to MI6, who ensure that Bulman's story will never see the light of day.
    • In Russian Roulette, a 14 year old Yassen Gregorovitch arrives at Moscow station. A guy called Dimitri wanders over and starts talking to him, giving him directions and acting really friendly towards him, despite the two boys never meeting before now. Dimitri then decides to go with Yassen to the subway station, and puts his arm around his shoulders.
      You'd Expect: Yassen to realise that with the way Dimitri, a complete stranger, is acting towards him, something's probably up, and politely thank him for his help and leave his company as soon as possible.
      Instead: He lets Dimitri accompany him, and is subsequently pickpocketed.

  • The Amelia Bedelia books center around a maid who is frequently given instructions that she screws up as a result of her tendency to take things literally.
    You'd Expect: She, as a grown woman, would understand figures of speech and do what she was instructed to do as intended.
    Instead: She doesn't understand and always takes instructions literally. Then again, that's what makes the stories so entertaining.
    Also You’d Expect: Her employers would learn to phrase things literally after she screwed up the first few times.
    Instead: They continue to use figures of speech, and she continues to take instructions wrong. They actually did learn to do that at the end of the first book, but they obviously forgot to in later books.
  • In Angels & Demons, Langdon has figured out where the assassin is going to murder Cardinal Number 4, and actually beats him to the spot.
    You'd Expect: He'd shoot the tires of the van, or wait until the assassin removes the Cardinal, and then shoot him in the leg, incapacitating him.
    Instead: He climbs into the fountain, waits until the Assassin is right up against the fountain, and then says "You, stop." The Assassin mocks him and kicks the Cardinal into the fountain. The end result: The Cardinal drowns, and Langdon only succeeds in shooting the assassin's toe.
  • Animorphs: In one book, 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.
    • In a later book the Animorphs take on a new member, David. Unfortunately, his father has just become a Controller and knows his son knows about Yeerks, so David needs a place to stay where his father can't find him.
      You'd Expect: That David would stay with the Chee, who have a big well-furnished home with lots of dogs. Everyone loves dogs. (Note that in a later book where Marco's dad learns the truth, he does move in with the Chee.)
      Instead: He's told to sleep in Cassie's barn, fueling his resentment against the Animorphs for causing the circumstances that orphaned him.
  • Anna and the French Kiss: Anna is upset about her father forcing her to leave Atlanta for an elite Parisian school. It means she also leaves behind her best friend Bridgette, who is a drummer, and her crush Toph. She recommends that Bridgette audition for Toph's band. This leads to Toph and Bridgette becoming a couple, even though Bridgette knows about Anna's crush. Bridgette also feels resentful about Anna getting to leave Atlanta and have an adventure abroad..
    You'd Expect: Bridgette to have broken the new gently to Anna months ago that she and Toph have hooked up, to apologize for the break in social boundaries, and talk out any issues they may have.
    Instead: Bridgette doesn't. Toph does when Anna visits home for Christmas, the night of one of their concerts. Anna understandably makes a scene on learning her best friend got together with her crush.
    You'd Then Expect: Bridgette to stop the show for a bit, pull Anna offstage, and have an argument there. The Show Must Go On and Anna looks like a typical heckler.
    Instead: Bridgette is the most unprofessional musician ever. As Anna confronts her, Bridgette stays on stage with her goes on a rant about how Anna left her in "Shitlanta". Anna then shouts back that her brother, whom Bridgette is babysitting, already likes Bridgette better, and Anna storms off in tears, calling her friend Etienne St. Clair from the Parisian school.
    The Result: Some instruments get damaged due to their fight, and both girls make utter fools of themselves. By the time Bridgette cools down, what she has said and done sinks in hard, but Anna has cut her out of her life and refuses to accept any apology in person, by phone or by email. She also puts away the model train she was going to gift her ex-best friend. Anna's brother also gets angry on hearing Bridgette made her cry, and Anna has to make him promise that he won't turn Bridgette into a Badly Battered Babysitter. It's not until months later that Anna breaks up Etienne and Ellie's relationship that she's able to write back to Bridgette, and it's unclear if they are able to mend ties.
  • Artemis Fowl:
    • In The Eternity Code, Artemis uses stolen fairy technology to construct the C Cube, a miniature supercomputer decades ahead of anything on the human market. He invites Jon Spiro, an American tech billionaire thought to have made his money off the back of stolen research, to a demonstration of the C Cube at a Knightsbridge café.
      You'd Expect: Artemis to offer Spiro some kind of partnership - Artemis gets access to Spiro's manufacturing facilities to mass-produce the C Cube, Spiro gets a share of the C Cube's profits and access to its hyper-advanced tech, and both men get filthy rich as the C Cube makes every other computer system in the world obsolete overnight.
      Instead: Artemis offers Spiro eighteen months to pull his company out of the tech market and get his affairs in order, before Artemis releases the C Cube to market and bankrupts him along with every other tech giant on the planet. All the while, he rubs the C Cube's advanced capabilities in Spiro's face, and expects him to take all this lying down. Remember, Spiro is thought to have made his fortune by stealing others' research.
      The Result: Spiro steals the C Cube (surprise, surprise), and Butler is mortally wounded in a Heroic Sacrifice to save Artemis from Spiro's right-hand man.
    • In The Atlantis Complex, Ragby, a henchman of the main villain, pushes a button to deliver an electric shock to the dwarf Mulch Diggums, who's in a pod filled with bubbles of passed gas (dwarfs in this series are Fartillery units).
      You'd Expect: Him to not do that, as he doesn't know what's in the gas. It could be explosive, and the electricity would spark it into blowing up.
      Instead: He presses the button, the gas explodes, Mulch is freed, and the whole thing was a distraction for The Smart Guy, and so now everyone imprisoned is freed.
      Lampshaded beautifully: "Any first-day chemistry student could have told Ragby never to put sparks near a mystery gas. Unfortunately, Ragby had never met any first-day chemistry students, so it came as a complete suprise when the gas passed by Mulch Diggums ignited, in a chain of miniature explosions."
  • Beastly: Kyle is the local male Alpha Bitch. He gets away with being a bullying jerk because of his good looks and wealthy father. Unbeknownst to him, a witch named Kendra takes interest and stages an opportunity to curse him. Mind that rather she gives him an opportunity to show that he actually has a good side, by posing as a Hollywood Homely classmate. He then asks her out to a dance only to humiliate her, merely because she's made it clear she thinks he's a jerk. Kendra then reveals her true form, and she is actually quite beautiful, and it is time to curse him. It's revealed that Kendra has a bad habit of overdoing magic, which means the other witches have forced her to do community service as atonement, by working as a servant. Their reason is pragmatic, in that Kendra's magic would lead to a Broken Masquerade and ordinary people would find out about them.
    You'd Expect: Kendra would merely humiliate Kyle in an indiscreet way that only he will remember. Also that if she really wants him to learn a lesson then it has to be a fair-play curse that he can break relatively easily provided he changes his attitude.
    Instead: She turns him into a hairy beast-man, in line with the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast". To add insult to injury, she says that his Curse Escape Clause is that he has two years to make someone love him, in beast form, and give him True Love's Kiss or he will stay that way forever. Online dating won't cut it, and neither will trying to use surgery to alter his face; someone has to actually see him, get to know him, and love him. For a token prize, he gets a magic mirror that lets him see everything and anything he wants. Which is useful in letting him see the outside world while he's cooped up but for not much else. The film fixes this in that Kyle remains human but is given an entirely different look that he finds abhorrent.
    The Result: The curse becomes Gone Horribly Wrong and Disproportionate Retribution; yes, Kyle shouldn't have humiliated Kendra at the dance, but that was one bad night; she pretty much destroyed his entire life in retaliation. Kyle's father pulls him out of school and locks him up in a mansion, with only a housekeeper and a blind tutor for company. His girlfriend breaks up with him as soon as he tries to trick her into kissing him and she sees his form. The witches get really angry and punish Kendra for exposing magic to so many people by making her pose as Kyle's housekeeper, Magda, and it's only because Kyle treats Magda kindly that he decides she should be allowed to go home as soon as he breaks his curse. Kyle also tells off Kendra for the curse, not just because of what it's done to him, but because it would be cruel to make anyone fall in love with a beast like him and ruin their life. His efforts to break the curse fail until he forces a would-be thief to bring his daughter Lindy and make her a captive in the mansion; coincidentally his kindness to Lindy the night of that fateful dance is what inspired the Curse Escape Clause in the first place. This also fails because Lindy is constantly reminded that she is a prisoner, and was taken away from the life that she had built from the wreckage of her father's drug addiction. If not for Lindy deciding to find Kyle, or Adrian as she knows him, after he releases her to take care of her father, then the curse would never have been broken. So Kendra is a textbook example of how NOT to curse. The only real benefits that ensue are that Kyle learns to truly care for the people in his life who stay with him, and sees his father and ex-girlfriend for the shallow people they really are.
  • Beast Quest: In Series 23, King Hugo's long lost brother, Prince Angelo, returns to the Kingdom with very suspicious company in tow. He immediately (as in, on the same day of his return) demands the crown.
    You'd Expect: King Hugo, or anyone else in the room - Tom, Elenna, Captain Harkman - with a brain to advise Angelo to rest from his wounds and 'thirty years of war' and get to know the Kingdom he wants to rule; then send a party up to the Borderlands to check if Angelo's story is truthful.
    Instead: Hugo immediately hands over the crown and all authority to 'Angelo'.
    As a result: 'Angelo' turns Avantia into a brutal dictatorship and almost has Tom executed, forcing him and Elenna to go clean up Hugo's mistake... AGAIN!
  • Because A Little Bug Went Ka-CHOO!' by Theodor Seuss Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss, or in this case, Rosetta Stone):

    • A bumblebee (bees are not true "bugs"; an example of a true bug is a cicada) sneezes, and this triggers a chain reaction of events that soon result in a boat, with a five-person crew and two passengers, sinking and being rescued by a helicopter with a six-person crew. The helicopter hoists the boat out of the water by a rope.
      You'd Expect: Along with the helicopter, a semi-trailer truck large enough to carry the boat would come, and the helicopter would place the boat on the trailer and allow the boat's crew and passengers to get off, so that the boat could be taken to town to be fixed. Based on the illustration of the boat, a standard flatbed trailer would be sufficient to transport it.
      Instead: The helicopter itself carries the boat and its five-person crew, two passengers, and a 5-foot-long fish caught by one of the passengers, off to town to have the boat fixed, which is dangerous to everyone who is still on board the boat. Once they get to the outskirts of town, they encounter a circus parade.
      The Result: Chaos occurs in the streets, involving all of the people and animals in the parade, including the clowns, the band, the twelve elephants, the gorilla, the two giraffes, the two bears, the lion, the zebra, and the two horses. The helicopter drops the boat, which is caught and carried by four of the circus's elephants. The helicopter itself is forced to land on one of the buildings, because its motor has broken. It is unclear what caused this breakage.
      You'd Have Expected: The helicopter's crew would have noticed the parade in plenty of time to steer clear of it. In fact, one the boat's crew members, looking through his telescope, seems to notice the parade. Presumably, he shouted a warning to the helicopter's crew, but was ignored.
  • The Belgariad:
    • Evil sorcerer and Disciple of Torak Ctuchik has come into possession of the Orb of Aldur, one of the most powerful objects ever created, along with the thief who stole it. He knows that the heroes will have to go looking for it, and that they'll inevitably come to confront him. Because they're following a prophecy, he comes up with quite a good plan: let them confront him, and then kill the weakest member of the party, as she has a very important role to play in the future. With her dead, the entire prophecy fails.
      You'd Expect that he'd make damn sure that his intended target was actually with the party before allowing them anywhere near him.
      Instead he doesn't do any verifying, and the party leaves the weak member at a very safe place before continuing onward.
    • While the weakest member of the party is safe and sound, there are several other candidates, namely two members of the party who are standing guard outside the tower and have no idea what's going on.
      You'd Expect that Ctuchik would keep his head and try to attack one of them. He has the ability and can certainly pull off such an attack.
      Instead he freaks out and ends up breaking one of the definitive laws of nature, and gets himself obliterated.

  • The BFG by Roald Dahl: The titular character, the 24-foot-tall BFG (Big Friendly Giant), creates exciting dreams to blow into children's bedrooms at night, so that they dream them while they are asleep. An 8-year-old orphaned girl named Sophie sees him doing this one night, and he snatches her from the orphanage (where the punishment for getting out of bed at night, even to go to the lavatory, is getting locked in the cellar for a day and a night with nothing to eat). Fortunately, after he has brought her to his cave, he informs her that he doesn't eat people; all he eats is the world's worst-tasting fruit, the snozzcumber. As far as he's concerned, it tastes of "clockcoaches and slimewanglers". Sophie has a taste of it as well, and to her, it tastes of "frogskins and rotten fish". The BFG reveals to her nine other giants, most of whom are about 50 feet tall. One of them, the Fleshlumpeater, is 54 feet tall. The eight others are known as the Bloodbottler, Bonecruncher, Butcher Boy, Childchewer, Gizzardgulper, Maidmasher, Manhugger, and Meatdripper. As their names suggest, they eat "human beans". The BFG informs Sophie that as "grizzling and horrigust" as this is, it's no worse than what humans do to each other. Humans kill each other much faster than the giants eat them. Sophie, in defense of her own race, still considers it wrong for giants to eat humans, who have never made trouble for them. The BFG responds that pigs have never caused trouble for humans, either, yet humans eat pigs.

    BFG: I is not understanding human beans at all. You is a human bean and you is saying it is grizzling and horrigust for giants to be eating human beans. Right or left?
    Sophie: Right.
    BFG: But human beans is squishing each other all the time. They is shootling guns and going up in aerioplanes to drop their bombs on each other's heads every week. Human beans is always killing other human beans.
    Sophie: Even so, I think it's rotten that those foul giants should go off every night to eat humans. Humans have never done them any harm.
    BFG: That is what the little piggy-wig is saying every day. He is saying, "I has never done any harm to the human bean so why should he be eating me?".
    Sophie: Oh dear.
    BFG: The human beans is making rules to suit themselves. But the rules they is making do not suit the little piggy-wiggies. Am I right or left?
    Sophie: Right.
    BFG: Giants is also making rules. Their rules is not suiting the human beans. Everybody is making his own rules to suit himself.
    Sophie: But you don't like it that those beastly giants are eating humans every night, do you?
    BFG: I do not. One right is not making two lefts.

    • Later, he and Sophie come up with a plan to inform the Queen of England about the giants eating people, and the Queen allows them to have breakfast at Buckingham Palace.
      You'd Expect: Sophie would remember what the BFG told her about humans eating pigs, and suggest that they have something that doesn't require animals to be killed, such as oatmeal.
      Instead: She completely disregards what he told her earlier, and requests sausages, bacon, and fried eggs for each of them. The Queen agrees to this. The BFG loves this food, because he apparently doesn't know that sausages and bacon, like pork and ham, are made from pigs—and Sophie doesn't point this out to him. The text states that a 6-foot human would eat about two fried eggs, three pieces of toast, and four strips of bacon for breakfast. However, since the BFG is 4 times this height, he is 64 times the mass of a 6-foot human. Therefore, he would require 128 fried eggs, 192 pieces of toast, and 256 strips of bacon.
      Fortunately: With the help of the Air Force and the Army, the man-eating giants are captured using helicopters (or "bellypoppers", as the BFG calls them) and put in a pit with an area of about 96,000 square feet (twice the size of a football field) and a depth of 500 feet, excavated by 20,000 people and 10,000 machines. The BFG promises to always feed the other giants on snozzcumbers. He and Sophie are hailed as heroes for this.
      However: Among other rewards for the success of their plan, the BFG and Sophie each receive a barrel of sweet and sour pork from the King of Sweden, and Sophie still doesn't remind the BFG of what he told her about "human beans" and "little piggy-wiggies".

  • The Black Witch Chronicles:
    • In order to pay her tuition at Verpax University, Elloren has to work in the kitchens. The rest of the kitchen staff are all non-Gardnerians with good reasons to hate Gardnerians, and Elloren in particular. However, Elloren has no reason to hate any of them, and no inclination to. In addition, while Elloren has no magic herself, her family is the closest thing Gardnerians have to royalty, and she has powerful connections.
      You'd Expect that the other kitchen workers would realise that as much as they might hate having her around, Elloren could make their lives very painful if they gave her a reason, and they don't have to like or befriend her, so they should just put up with her presence while being as coldly civil as they want.
      Instead, Iris and Bleddyn bully Elloren both verbally and physically, and threaten to break her arms and legs if she tells anyone about things Elloren not only lacked knowledge of the notability of, but had no reason or inclination to tell anyone about. Elloren attempts to report them to the Kitchen Mistress, but the Kitchen Mistress makes it clear that she's on Iris and Bleddyn's side and won't so much as rebuke them for it.
      As A Result, Elloren, lacking other options, calls in Lukas Grey, the man her aunt wants her to fast to, who happens to be a high-ranked soldier with even more power and connections. Lukas proceeds to threaten Iris, Bleddyn and the Kitchen Mistress' families if they hurt Elloren again, which Elloren doesn't like, but can't see an alternative to, since she obviously wasn't going to just take the bullying lying down.
    • Gwynnifer gives Sage the White Wand, an incredibly powerful artefact that is one of the main forces for good in the world, both because the Wand wants to go to Sage and because the Wand needs to stay hidden, which is becoming much harder in Gardneria's capital city, Valgard. There are demons searching for the Wand, but they look like normal Gardnerians to nearly everyone else. Among the instructions Gwynn gives Sage is that she should never look the demons in the eye, or a connection will be formed and they will instantly know that Sage has the White Wand, and begin to target her. If Sage can just get the wand out of Valgard without the demons following her, then she'll be safe.
      You'd Expect Sage to realise that since they're travelling via a carriage, the best way for her to avoid letting the demons realise that she has the Wand is to simply not look out of the window, since she can't make eye contact with anyone that way- at least until they're safely out of Valgard. And since they have books with them, she can just read a book and not look up for a while.
      Instead Sage looks out the window and winds up making eye contact with one of the demons.
      As A Result, the demons come after them. Sage manages to get her family to change carriages so that the demons follow the right carriage but the wrong family, but it was a close call.
  • Blue Beard: Blue Beard is a very wealthy and powerful nobleman who has been married multiple times and murdered his wives without anyone finding this out. He marries once again and has to go to a businesstrip and wants to let his current wife access to every door of the house except for an underground chamber in which the corpses of his former wives are hidden.
    You'd Expect: This should be a no brainer, he would give her the keys to every door in the house except the one to mentioned chaimber.
    Instead: He gives her all the keys and tells her not to open the door to the chaimber. Very well done...
    As A Result: The wife eventually gets curious, opens the door and finds out the secret. She drops the key on the floor out of shock and gets the key dirty with blood and can't wash the blood off. She tells her sister about the discovery and the latter goes to get their brothers to help them escape the next morning. Bluebeard comes home earlier than expected, sees the key covered with blood and finds out his wife discovered the truth. As he prepares to end her life her sister and brothers come and kill Bluebeard.
  • Boy Toy: In this companion to The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, the main character Josh was involved in a sexual relationship with his teacher Evelyn Sherman, when he was 12. He believes that he's truly in love with her, that she's treating him as special not because he's just a prodigy, and ignores the fact that she's married. This relationship, however, leads to Josh knowing nothing about sexual boundaries and he assaults a classmate at her birthday party, which leads to his parents finding out about the affair. Cue a scandalous court case, Evelyn getting arrested, and the family ending up having to testify. Josh doesn't want to get "Eve" in trouble as he calls her and pleads the fifth.
    You'd Expect: Someone would have told Josh that what happened wasn't his fault. They would also explain that Evelyn was using him. Evelyn reveals later that she lied to him about there being a special graduate school project and was grooming him from the first time she saw him in class. This makes Josh realize he was a victim of child molesting.
    Instead: Apart from his therapist, who gives Josh a dollar every time he goes into psychotherapy babble, as well as his best friend Isaac, who is mad at himself for not realizing what Josh was going through, Rachel who understands that Josh's sense of boundaries was warped and he spent the next five years apologizing to her for the birthday party assault, everyone has No Sympathy towards Josh being molested. Evelyn's husband beats him up while calling him a pervert, Josh's mother says derisively that her own son doesn't know what love is, and the court judge nearly fines the family for contempt of the court in refusing to answer if Evelyn gave him a specific birthday card. In high school, the baseball coach knows that Josh is one of the best players and up for a Stanford scholarship, but thinks that taunting him about the relationship will help him shape up during practice.
    The Result: Josh understandably develops trust and anger management issues, that he believes that he ruined Evelyn's life, that he is a deranged pervert who will never find real love. Mr. Sherman gets arrested for assaulting a child and also served with a restraining order; he is truly sorry according to Evelyn but the damage is done, physically and emotionally. Isaac and Josh take years to have a talk where Isaac admits that he wanted to comfort Josh, but his best friend wouldn't let him and Josh admits he's being a jerk. It's implied that when Josh learns his mother was having an affair and his parents decided to divorce once he graduated high school that he's never going to talk to either of his parents again, telling off his mother for saying he doesn't know what love is when she obviously doesn't either. To her credit, Josh's mother does go My God, What Have I Done? when Josh calls her out, that she's comforting him the way that Evelyn did and that she ruined their family by having an affair. To top it all off, he decides to throw the baseball game that a Stanford recruiter is watching, having decided that he wants to go to Stanford as a purely academic student, humiliating said coach.
  • The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao: Towards the end of the novel, Oscar has narrowly escaped with his life after his crush Ybon's boyfriend, a police cop and mob boss, orders a hit on him. His family takes him from the Dominican Republic to the United States so he has a chance to heal physically and emotionally. Oscar is still in love with Ybon, even though she herself told him she was marrying her jerky cop boyfriend and for Oscar not to see her anymore, for his own safety. His mother Beli hates Ybon, calling her a "puta" for endangering her son and being a sex worker. One thing is that Oscar has been suicidal for most of his college years and has attempted to end his life twice; this concerns his big sister and her ex-boyfriend Yunio, who has served as Oscar's roommate.
    You'd Expect: While Beli doesn't want to understand that Oscar's mental state is fragile, that Yunior and Lola would put Oscar under a strict Suicide Watch. Yunior knows that he owes it to Lola since he failed to stop Oscar's second attempt while rooming with him, and cheated on her when they were together. Oscar is not rational right now and insisting that he loves Ybon, so any risk they take is worth it. Lola and Yunior both know that what he's feeling now isn't love but obsession, and he needs to let go of Ybon for his safety.
    Instead: Oscar is left to his own devices once he's recovered physically. He asks Yunior for a loan, something he's never done because Oscar is sensible and saves up his money usually. Yunio lampshades this when he realizes belatedly that Oscar never has needed a loan before.
    The Result: Oscar takes the money and flies back to the Dominican Republic, courts Ybon, and has sex with her. Her husband then kills him brutally, leaving his family to mourn. Beli, in remission, feels her cancer resurge from the stress and succumbs to Death by Despair. Yunior and Lola's relationship is relegated to borderline Amicable Exes since he's indirectly responsible for giving Oscar the means to die and he has to accept that she moved on with someone more faithful.
  • Bridge to Terabithia: The crux of the story is next-door neighbors Leslie and Jesse swinging on a rope to go into the part of their backyard past the river. It's a rope that's been there long before Jesse's families even moved in, and he notes that it's fraying. It's even noted in the film that Jesse says it could snap at any time. Later, Jesse's dad reveals he knew the kids were using it to go over the river, shocking Jesse because he thought it was his and Leslie's secret.
    You'd Expect: One of the adults would give the kids a sturdier piece of rope that is newer, or advise them to build a bridge of planks. Jesse and Leslie hammer together a treehouse, showing they could easily make something sturdier for crossing. The river is said to have a heavy current, and sharp rocks.
    Instead: The Burke and the Aarons family let the kids use the older rope. While Mr. Aarons has an excuse that he's working 24 hours a day, Mr. and Mrs. Burke don't.
    The Result: On the rainiest day of the year, the rope snaps when Leslie uses it to go to Terabithia alone, owing to the age, increased humidity, and water damage. Jesse had even wanted to warn her they shouldn't go, since the river is super-flooded and to spend the day inside. He doesn't because Miss Edmunds invites him to visit an art museum. Leslie drowns, and Mr. Aarons thinks that she must have hit her head on one of the sharp rocks before she could swim to shore. The adults don't say how long it took to find Leslie's body, but it must have been a long while and Jesse is also missing. His mother frantically hugs him when he returns as his dad gently breaks the news. It's only after that Jesse thinks to make a sturdy bridge from some lumber, so that he and his little sister can cross safely.
  • Broken Gate: Over 100 years ago, after a battle, Nezumi places a curse on her older brother Ryuuji for his awful treatment of her. However, she does offer to lift the curse if he offers to make amends and learns from his mistakes.
    You'd Expect: Ryuuji to suck up his arrogance, learn from his mistakes, and make amends with his sister so she'd lift the curse she put upon him.
    Instead: He decided to antagonize her further, the which causes her to open a gate with something malign behind it, which has very unpleasant results.
    What's Worse: Years later, upon finding out that she had survived, he decides to seek her out, despite his other sister, Miyako, warning their brother, Tora, not to for understandable reasons, as it could (and, unfortunately, does)result in her death, nevermind the fact that she had opened the gate once and would be prompted to open it again.
  • Carrie:
    • Miss Desjardin has punished the girls for the opening locker room prank against Carrie by making them serve detention under her, running laps. If they don't, then they're banned from prom. Chris tries to have her lawyer father toss the detention out and get Miss Desjardin fired, only for the vice-principal to pull out a Long List of assault charges that Chris has against other students, including putting a firecracker in a disabled girl's shoe. He says if they try a lawsuit, they have enough evidence to countersue for Carrie and Chris's other victims. Mr. Hargensen chides Chris for not telling him the full details of her school record and making him look like a fool. Chris refuses to do the detention, but she doesn't want to spend prom night with her boyfriend Billy solely. She wants revenge.
      You'd Expect: Chris would prank Miss Desjardin if she's going to have her "revenge". She'd have more Plausible Deniability because more than one girl didn't do the detention and got banned from prom as a result.
      Instead: She plans to dump pig's blood on Carrie and Tommy; Carrie for being the reason why Miss Desjardin came down hard on all the girls, and Tommy for deciding to be nice to Carrie. Note that to anyone with half a brain, that would peg her as the instigator immediately, which the cops do after all the chaos dies down, they can open an investigation, and several survivors corroborate this accusation.
      The Result: Gone Horribly Wrong doesn't begin to describe how the night goes. While Carrie's bucket of pig's blood was liquid enough to coat her, Tommy's bucket solidifies, hits him on the head and kills him on impact. Rather than try to help Tommy or get emergency services via an anonymous call from a payphone, Chris and Billy run away to a motel and engage in passionate violent sex. In some film versions, Chris goes Oh, Crap! about this because now she has Accidental Murder and assault charges added to her record, and she didn't want Tommy dead. When Carrie's rampage starts, she knows that everyone is going to trace the prank back to her because of her swearing of revenge about prom night, and that's not even to say what Carrie will do to her if she stops to personally handle the person that ruined her one nice night. Sure enough, the survivors which include Norma and Sue Snell, write memoirs that paint Chris as the instigator. Her reputation is ruined in death.
    • Sue wants to atone for her bullying of Carrie by having her boyfriend take Carrie to the prom. While getting ready for the prom, Sue sees Chris Hargensen going into an office where the prom committee is working. She asks her friend Helen what's going on. Helen's "over innocent" response makes Sue suspicious that Chris is up to something, and Helen knows about it.
      You'd Expect: Sue would tell someone about her suspicions.
      Instead: She does nothing, which allows the prank to go ahead.
    • Chris and Billy are woken up by one of their friends, who tells them the town is on fire and that people are saying Carrie did it. Billy doesn't believe him, but realizes that they'll be in serious trouble over the prank. Chris convinces him they need to go now and leave for California. As they leave and get into their car, Billy sees Carrie staggering in the road in front of them.
      You'd Expect: Billy would drive in the other direction, or at least try to drive around her.
      Instead: He hits the gas pedal and tries to run her down, even when Chris is dead-set against it. Carrie takes control of the car and flings it into a wall, killing them both.
  • Catalyst: Kate Malone is The Ace of her senior year. She's taking college-level classes and is the top track athlete on her school team, and many consider her a genius. This should make her a prime candidate for MIT, like her mother was before her. College application season arrives.
    You'd Expect: Kate to have made a list of safety schools and applied to two or three. This is common sense since the whole point of a "safety school" is to serve as your backup plan
    Instead: She tells her preacher dad Jack, who is so busy that he doesn't bother to check, that she will take care of the applications. Then Kate applies to only one Ivy League, MIT.
    Predictably: Kate does not get into MIT despite her 4.0 GPA and stellar athletic record. Jack tries to comfort her when she suffers a nervous breakdown at school the next day, but he wants her to focus on safety schools since she lied to him about having those, and she deflects because she doesn't want to admit the truth. Her boyfriend Mitch lampshades this was a stupid decision for the class genius to make when he finds out, though he doesn't judge her. When she calls MIT admissions, posing as her mother, the admissions officer figure out who she is and say that the issue wasn't tuition scholarships or the grades; it's that Kate didn't stand out compared to other candidates, but that's not a bad thing. She can go to a good college, it just won't be MIT. Mitch rallies their friend group to help Kate deal with that and her bully Terri lashing out because Terri's brother died in a senseless accident while Jack was helping rebuild their house, but they all admit that right now, college isn't an option. Kate's best bet would be taking a gap year and either volunteering or traveling.
  • The Cat in the Stacks Mysteries: In-Universe, in Dead With the Wind (#2 of the spinoff series Southern Ladies Mysteries), the final chapter has the Ducote sisters remarking on how they already knew Sondra's killer was stupid, but then he really blew it when the police find he still has the murder weapon.
    Dickce: "How many killers are actually dumb enough to drive around with the murder weapon in the trunk of their cars?"
  • Changing Latitudes:
    • During the novel, almost-high school senior Cassie and her brother Drew are watching the aftermath of their parents going through an unexpected divorce. Their mother gets laid off from her bank manager job but still retains custody of them. Their dad gets a transfer to teach in Hong Kong but his child support isn't enough. Cassie channels her frustrations into her home garden, and looks forward to a trip with her best friends so as to get away from the home unpleasantness. In the meantime, Mom gets an offer to sail a wealthy family's yacht from California to Mexico. She knows that Cassie likes her safety and stability, and the job market doesn't look friendly
      You'd Expect: Mom and Dad to lay out the options for how Cassie and Drew want to spend their summer. They could spend it with their dad, at home since Cassie is almost a legal adult, or with friends.
      Instead: Mom, in an attempt to reel in Cassie who is refusing to speak to her and acting out, forces the kids to go with her on the boat. Neither have experience in sailing. Cassie isn't even given the choice to go on the trip she spent months waiting for or to spend her summer at home because Mom rents out the house, with her garden. Then the couple that rents it makes an offer to buy it, and Mom seriously considers the offer because she's low on cash.
      The Result: Drew handles the bad news stoically, as well as each turn and tide but Cassie understandably spends most of the trip even angrier at her mother than before and calls her out regularly for her selfishness. At the end of the novel, when Mom needs to be hospitalized for a head injury that occurs during a storm, Cassie chooses that they throw in the towel and sail back into the harbor.
    • Mom also reveals why the divorce happened in the first place: she had reconnected with an old flame on Facebook, who made her realize that she had given up her passion for sailing in an attempt to get anchored after a miscarriage and marrying Dad. She and Dad attempted to do marriage counseling, only for them to realize the spark had gone out of their marriage.
      You'd Expect: She and Dad would have stayed together long enough for Mom to get her finances together.
      Instead: Mom divorces him almost immediately. Then when she's laid off, his child support isn't enough to help her and the kids out. She also fails to find another job while doing Skype interviews.
      The Result: The family suffers a lot of money stresses.
  • Roald Dahl wrote two books about a boy named Charlie and a chocolate factory owned by a Mr. Wonka, and even they have several idiotic moments:
    • The first book:
      • In a story told to Charlie by his Grandpa Joe, Mr. Wonka travels to India to help a Indian prince named Pondicherry to build a palace out of chocolate. Once the work is done, Mr. Wonka, who knows that the hot Indian climate won't let the palace stand for long, warns Pondicherry that he would start eating up the place now if he was the prince.
        You’d Expect: For Pondicherry to realise that Wonka has a point and do exactly as he had suggested.
        You'd Also Expect: That since Wonka has figured out how to make chocolate ice cream that doesn't melt, even in the hottest sun, he'd use the same ingredients in his chocolate for the palace.
        Instead: The Prince rejects the warning, claiming that he didn't want the palace so that he could eat it up, but that he wanted to live in it.
        Unsurprisingly: The palace eventually melts with Pondicherry inside, hammering home Wonka's point the hard way.
      • Willy Wonka is considered a genius chocolate maker, eccentric and creative. In a cutthroat candy industry, this means that corporate rivals send in spies to steal his recipes and recreate them.
        You'd Expect: The corporations once they have the recipes wouldn't try to blatantly copy Wonka's inventions, because if he's able to build an entire palace out of chocolate, he can probably create some way out of espionage. Also Wonka's inventions came out first, so anything identical to them would appear as cheap knockoffs.
        Instead: Three rival candy makers—Ficklegruber, Prodnose, and Slugworth—create direct replicas of Wonka's non-melting ice cream, everlasting gum, and candy balloons, which opens the floodgates for more candy makers to copy him as well. It's so blatant that everyone can see it.
        The Result: Wonka closes down for a couple of years in a rage, only to reopen with mysterious workers that never go into or out of his factory. It means he regains his reputation as the most wonderful candymaker, AND manages to create an oligopoly because they can't keep up or replicate his magical candy.
      • Later, Mr. Wonka takes five lucky winners of 'Golden Tickets' (Augustus, Veruca, Violet, Mike, and {of course} Charlie) on a tour of his factory. The first room they come to is the 'Chocolate Room'. It has a liquid chocolate river and waterfall, from which some (if not all) of the chocolate used in Wonka's products is sourced. Oh, and there is no railing to keep anyone back.
        You’d Expect: The whole tour group would keep their distance.
        Instead: Augustus goes to the edge of the liquid chocolate river and starts licking it up raw. One could point out that this was out of gluttony, but then again, it does lead to him falling in, nearly drowning and embarking on an unplanned journey up a pipe.
      • Not long after, they come to the Inventing Room, where Mr. Wonka creates some of his wondrous products. One of the products are a kind of gobstopper that can never get smaller or run out of favours. Violet thinks it's like the gum she has a habit of chewing, but Mr. Wonka tells her that if one were to chew them they could break their teeth. Also, he's told all the kids to not touch anything in the room because they're dangerous. The kids have just promised.
        You'd Expect: If Mr. Wonka shows them gum, Violet would just stand and watch.
        Instead: When Mr. Wonka shows them a kind of gum that has the flavour of a three-course meal (tomato soup, roast beef and baked potato, and blueberry pie and whipped cream), Violet grabs it and starts chewing on it. Of course, the gum has a flaw - once you reach the blueberry pie you swell up, turn blue and end up looking like a blueberry, as Violet finds out. While the swelling is reversed, the skin change is partially irreversible.
      • During the tour, Mr. Wonka tells an anecdote about a test of a kind of fizzy drink that makes one lift upwards against gravity. He gave it an Oompa-Loompa (a race of little people; they are Wonka's previously mentioned mysterious workers) in the backyard, the last place to drink the drink, and the poor little guy ends up levitating.
        You'd Think: That the Oompa-Loompa would burp, which is the only way to counter the effects of the drink.
        Instead: He doesn't and ends up flying into space.
        Extra Points: Charlie outright states that the guy should have burped, to which Wonka agrees, but the latter mentions that he "didn't or couldn't or wouldn't. I don't know which. Maybe he was too polite". In other words, the Oompa-Loompa wouldn't burp.
      • Another of the factory rooms contains nuts, and Mr Wonka has trained squirrels to select the best for his nutter bars. Veruca wants to have one of them, but when her parents (who are accompanying her) ask Mr Wonka for a price, the chocolater's reply is this: "Not for sale, she can't have one!"
        You'd Expect: Veruca to take Wonka's word for it and not go any further (especially since she already has two dogs, four cats, six rabbits, a cage of white mice, a hamster, two parakeets, a parrot, three canaries, a turtle, and a bowl of goldfish).
        Instead: She attempts to steal one of the squirrels anyway, bursting into the room to do so. The squirrels all gang up on her. They decide that she's a 'bad nut' and throw her in the garbage, followed by her parents. Then it's revealed that she would been burned in the factory incinerator if it wasn't one of those days when it wasn't lit. In the 1971 film version (but not the 2005 one), they used geese and golden eggs instead, but the results are similar.
      • Mr. Wonka takes the group on a ride on his glass elevator that can go in any direction, and they arrive at a room where the factory is experimenting with interactive television advertising that can generate real chocolate. The experiment, performed by suited Oompa-Loompas, works using a camera that, when activated in front of giant-size chocolate, makes it disappear and makes it reappear again, shrunk down, on an interactive screen (similar to how real television imagery would work), the suits protecting the Oompa-Loompas from the effects of the camera. Mike, a television nut, has seen everything, and asks about things that could be 'sent by television'. When he suggests humans, Mr Wonka implies he is mad!
        You'd Expect: Mike would do nothing more and let the Oompa-Loompas do their thing.
        Instead: Mike decides to test his theory on himself, causing him to shrink, and causing the Oompa-Loompas to overstretch him when attempting to bring him back to normal.
    • In the second book, Mr. Wonka has a dozen pills known as Wonka-Vite that can reduce the age of anyone who takes them. He offers them to Charlie Bucket's bedridden grandparents, Grandpa George (age 81), Grandma Georgina (age 78), and Grandma Josephine (age 80 years and 3 months), and firmly establishes that each pill will make a person 20 years younger.
      You'd Expect: Them to listen to his advice not to take more than two pills each, thus (as Charlie said) leaving some for Grandpa Joe (who is 96½, and has gotten out of bed) and one for each of Charlie's parents.
      Instead: They refuse to and they each take four pills. Two of them are reduced to babies, and Grandma Georgina actually removes herself from existence, forcing Charlie and Mr. Wonka to risk their lives trying to rescue her from Minusland (another of the factory's rooms), where she now is, before she gets subtracted by invisible creatures called Gnoolies and turned into a Gnooly herself.
      Luckily: Wonka also created a liquid called Vita-Wonk; one drop of it reverses the effect of a pill.
      But You'd Expect: Just enough of said liquid would be sprayed in order to bring the woman back.
      Instead: They use so much of it that she ends up 358 years old, making them waste 14 of the pills (each of which is VERY hard and expensive to produce) getting her back to normal.
  • The Chemical Garden Trilogy: The Gathers, and arguably the society in general. All the women in this world drop dead at the age of 20, and all the men at the age of 25.
    You'd Expect: Society to keep every woman alive for as long as possible so they can reproduce and keep the human species from going extinct.
    Instead: The Gatherers, for some obscure reason, kidnap as many young women as possible and then kill all those who aren't chosen as brides for their employers.
  • In The Chronicles of Amber Fiona is shown a photo of Merlin's friend Luke while Merlin is trying to make sense of the strange (and deadly) happenings. She realizes from the photo that Luke is the son of Brand who once nearly shattered reality and managed to kill her sister Deirdre. From this she realizes that Luke is probably Cain's murderer and is looking for revenge, especially against the people who betrayed his father.
    You'd Expect: Her to instantly tell all this to Merlin and then rush back to Amber to warn everyone else. By this point everyone's getting along fairly well and they all consider Brand to have been a nutjob who's better off dead.
    Instead: She pretends not to recognize him and even threatens Merlin when he calls her bluff. After that she runs to Bleys and the two of them dash off to parts unknown (making this entry equally applicable to Bleys as well) leaving everyone else in the dark.
    Unsurprisingly: Luke causes a good deal of trouble before they can get the situation resolved.
  • The Chronicles of Narnia:
    • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: The White Witch has been on the lookout for humans. If four of them appear, then she's toast according to a prophecy and her rule will end. Lo and behold, one human appears, a naive child shivering in her eternal winter. She decides to enchant him with candy to interrogate him. Edmund for his part doesn't know he's being interrogated or drugged. He reveals he has three siblings and one has visited Narnia.
      You'd Expect: Edmund would back up Lucy, the sibling who did enter the wardrobe, and say the wardrobe must not be working all the time; or that the White Witch would tell him to. Then that would build trust in him and he can lure them to her castle more easily.
      Instead: For some reason, Edmund disavows Lucy and pretends he's never been there.
      Predictably: When the other siblings find out Lucy was right and Edmund had been there before, Peter gives him a What the Hell, Hero? and doesn't listen to him. Only Edmund goes to the witch's castle, just as his siblings leave to find Aslan and their thrones.
  • The fifth book of The Chronicles of Prydain has Pryderi leading a force to attack Caer Dallben and kill the Badass Pacifist and Big Good Dallben.
    You'd Expect: For Pryderi to come by himself and try to lull Dallben into a false sense of security, or at least pretend to come on friendly business (there's a war on, so it's not unreasonable that he should have several armed men with him. It's also highly unlikely that anyone could have gotten a message to Dallben warning him of his treachery.
    Instead: He leads a force of 20 men in an all-out assault. Might as well hold up a sign saying "WE'RE HERE TO KILL YOU!"
    The Result: By the time he reaches the cottage, he's the only one left standing. Just because someone practices Thou Shalt Not Kill does not mean they're helpless.
    For Added Stupidity: The innocence gambit has actually worked for him before. In that very book. Which leads to...
    • Upon arriving at Dallben's cottage, he threatens Dallben with a dagger, implied to be Anti-Magic, and then reaches out to touch The Book of Three, despite Dallben's warning to the contrary.
      You'd Expect: For him to just stab Dallben and go. Also, for him to listen to The Archmage when it comes to magical matters.
      Instead: He reaches out and grab the book, which has a self-defence mechanism. Bye-bye, Pryderi.
  • The Circle Opens: In Magic Steps, an "unmagic" assassin named Alzhena needs to be treated for an injury that she received while doing a job. One doctor agrees to do it, but for a high price given that said assassin is a wanted woman, and everyone in the area is looking for her.
    You'd Expect: Alzhena would take the price gouging.
    Instead: The assassin kills the doctor and takes back the money, after her injuries are treated.
    Predictably: Word gets out to the other medical professionals in the area about what Alzhena did. They all refuse to treat the assassin and in fact, try to turn her in for what they did to one of their own. When Sandry gets wind of this, she realizes that this woman is beyond reason and Ax-Crazy to boot. Her response when the lady tries to take her student Pasco hostage is to use her magic to get Pasco out of the area before tearing the assassin posse apart with unmagic, even when Alzhena's brother Nurhar begs for mercy.
  • City of Bones:
    • The main character, Clary, witnesses a boy her own age tied up (with piano wire) and questioned by people talking about demons and accusing the boy of being one, going so far as to threaten to kill him with a knife.
      You'd Expect: Her to leave immediately and look for a bouncer.
      Instead: She stands and watches, and then steps in when one of these obviously deranged people brings out a knife.
    • Soon after, the tied up boy attacks one of his captors, who kills him, and the boy's body basically implodes into nothing. His kidnappers and murderers continue to say he was a demon, and when her friend and a bouncer arrive she is apparently the only one who can see them.
      You'd Expect: Clary to seriously question whether or not she was sober at this point, considering she was in a club, and these people keep talking about magic and demons, and you know, she's the only one who can see them.
      Instead: She seems to accept what these murderers are telling her, and seems to think her doubts are wishful thinking.
    • After leaving the club, Clary's Childhood Friend Simon asks her if she's alright. He obviously knows something is wrong with her, and keeps asking her if she has something she wants to tell him.
      You'd Expect: Clary to confide in Simon, whom she's known for ten years, since what just happened was so traumatic.
      Instead: She doesn't tell him anything at all, her reasoning seeming to stem from how the MURDERER Jace talked to her.
    • The next evening, when talking to Simon in a resturaunt, Clary spots Jace again when he interrupts her conversation with a snort. He's armed, she's already seen him kill someone, and Simon is obviously trying to tell her something important. Jace, after interrupting her conversation, gets up and leaves.
      You'd Think: Clary would stay with Simon, perhaps very disturbed that her hallucination is appearing again, and maybe tell Simon what she just saw.
      Instead: She runs out after Jace. Jace, who she saw kill someone. Jace, who has a knife very like the one he killed someone on him at this very moment. Jace, who apparently only she can see. She runs after him outside. At night. "Terrified that he would disappear like a ghost." And she doesn't say a single word to Simon. She just up and leaves.
  • The Clifton Chronicles
    • Harry Clifton is an intelligent and talented author of detective novels who has a little - admittedly amateurish - experience in covert ops. In Mightier than the Sword, he's also the leading light of a movement to release a political prisoner in the USSR, who wrote a biography of Stalin which the Reds want to suppress at all costs. And Harry knows the USSR is keeping an eye on him. The prisoner's wife tells where the book's one known copy is, as long as he does his best to get it published.
      You'd Expect: Harry uses his connections to send someone less conspicuous to get the book. Or if he does it himself, to take basic precautions.
      Instead: He's so concerned with being the hero and fulfilling his promise that he doesn't leave any room for common sense. He takes Russian lessons, flies straight to Russia in his own name with an overnight bag (whose contents show he doesn't even plan to stay overnight), goes straight to the bookshop where the book is hidden, retrieves it, buys another book or two to "cunningly" disguise the reason for the visit, and heads straight back to the airport. He actually seems surprised when the Russians nick him at Customs. The officer in charge basically says Harry would've been more subtle if he took out a billboard. This all seems to be to facilitate the big crisis and cliffhanger of the last act, even though it would've arguably been better if Harry made a more valiant, sensible effort and then failed. Maybe hidden the book somewhere else before he got caught.
      • The Reds have Harry, and give him a show trial for "spying". So much of a Kangaroo Court, in fact, that they tell him it is beforehand. They also offer him amnesty and permanent exile from the USSR if he signs a confession, instead of vanishing to Siberia. The author of the aforementioned (now-destroyed) book even shows up to 'admit' he made the whole thing up.
        You'd expect: They'd have someone speaking English on hand.
        Instead: They don't. Harry convinces them he's actually convinced by the information. Then they not only chuck Harry in the same cell as the author, the guard doesn't speak English. He's also not alert enough to notice the whispered conversation.
        And so: The writer simply tells Harry the full contents of the book (which he had memorized), which Harry memorizes in turn with his previously-displayed photographic memory. Oh, and he as he reads the English version of his "confession" aloud he realizes nobody understands him, makes a mockery of it by replacing words, and signs it with the name William Warwick, his most famous fictional creation. His brother - in between bouts of laughter - can only assume the Russians were in such a hurry to send the confession to the press before Harry made it home that they forgot to actually check it.note 
  • The six people trapped together one cold and stormy night in the poem The Cold Within.
    You'd expect: However they felt about present company, they would at least try to keep the fire going.
    Instead: Each is hell-bent on spiting someone else of a demographic they have ill will towards, to the extent that they forget about self preservation entirely and let themselves freeze to death. This is particularly stupid in the case of the guy whose supposed excuse for letting the fire die is that he's completely selfish.
  • Curious George Goes To The Hospital: The titular curious monkey of the series by H. A. Rey has discovered a wooden jigsaw puzzle in its box, sitting on the desk of his friend, the man with the yellow hat. He opens it, and thinks that it's a box of candy. He puts one of the puzzle pieces into his mouth.
    You'd Expect: He'd spit it out as soon as realizes that it doesn't taste like candy.
    Instead: He doesn't, and swallows it whole.
    Later: The man returns home, and notices that George has already opened the puzzle, which he says was supposed to be a surprise for him. They put the puzzle together, but, as expected, one of the pieces is missing.
    You'd Have Expected: That if the puzzle was supposed to be a surprise for George, then the man, knowing George's curiosity, would have had it with him, and not left it out where George could find it easily.
    The Result: George has to go to the hospital, as the title indicates.
    Fortunately: They put a tube down his throat to remove the puzzle piece, and give it to him in a little box for him and the man to take home. When George and his friend get home, they finish the puzzle.

  • In Anne McCaffrey's Damia's Children, eldest son Isthian is ambushed and nearly killed by an unknown member of his expedition while exploring 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.
    You'd Think: Once Thian's mother, Damia, arrives on the scene, they'd mentally probe the team to find the real culprit.
    Instead: They don't. The assailant goes unknown for days while Thian recuperates, while they catch the occasional untraceable flash of hatred towards them. Finally, they catch the guy by mentally-attacking him with one big Mental Shout.
    Addition: It's "justified" elsewhere they can't do that due to "ethics" -nevermind that it's also established non-Talents and weak Talents can't tell when a strong Talent is active in their head, Damia is perfectly capable of tinkering with memories, and they have a would-be murderer on board.
  • The Darkglass Mountain Trilogy: After the events of prequel Threshold, in which Magi awaken an Eldritch Abomination that twists them into its puppets and attempts to end the world, the Threshold pyramid was abandoned and the Magi who worshiped it were all killed.
    You'd Expect: People would take note of this and not return to the location, much less try to complete the project via the same methods as before.
    Instead: New Magi with the exact same Functional Magic reemerge and not only complete the pyramid, but end up waking up two new abominations that try to destroy the world.
  • The Da Vinci Code: The main plot of the Da Vinci Code is this. Jacques Saunier was murdered in the Louvre. Autopsy reports confirm that he received an Agonizing Stomach Wound, and he used the blood from it to write one last message, which seems to be a lament. One last line reads: "PS. Find Robert Langdon." Langdon is an American academic, who was supposed to meet Sauniere for drinks the night before. As Robert explains, Sauniere never appeared and Robert thought he was stood up. Bezu Fache, the bobby in charge of the investigation, considers Robert as a primary suspect despite the lack of a motive or means, just that Jacques wrote his name down. He still doesn't have a case, and Robert lampshades that he doesn't even own a gun. If you go by the book continuity, Robert helped solve a murder in the Vatican so he does have a positive reputation.
    You'd Expect: Rather than bringing Langdon to the scene of the crime, where he could potentially tamper with evidence, just ask him to visit the police station and get his testimony. Alternatively, ask Sophie, who is revealed to be Jacques's granddaughter and one of Fache's cops on the case, if she has any idea what the message means. She and her grandfather were estranged for years, but she also was one of the few people alive who knew him best. Fache didn't know at first, but .
    Instead: Fache believes that Robert is guilty, without considering the other reasons that Jacques might have written to find Robert Langdon. (We find out the real reason was that Jacques knew that Robert would be able to solve the codes that hide the location of the real Holy Grail— Mary Magdelene's coffin and body.) In a blatant breach of how forensics works, he takes photos of the messages and then wipes away the fourth one that has Jacques naming the other academic. (Imagine how thrilled the prosecutor would be about a police inspector tampering with evidence to get his conviction.) He invites Langdon to the Louvre to see the scene of the crime and if he'll betray himself. After Robert pauses to use the bathroom, Sophie accosts him. She reveals that Fache is preparing to detain Robert on circumstantial evidence and put a locating device on him before he can hire a lawyer or defend himself. Robert protests that no one would be that dumb, but Sophie proves him otherwise by tossing the chip out of a window, onto a nearby truck, and Fache sends the cops after it. She says that she needs to escort him to the American embassy rather than spend months in French jail for a crime he didn't commit. Robert mentions that she could tell Fache the message was for her, but Sophie ends up proven correct that Fache would still detain Robert even if Jacques's granddaughter believes the man is innocent.
    The Result: When Fache finds out that Robert was innocent from Bishop Aringosa, and Sophie helps Robert because the message was for her — the PS wasn't a postscript but Jacques's Affectionate Nickname "Princess Sophie"— he is overcome with guilt and remorse. Also, by then Fache has led a countrywide manhunt against Sophie and Robert, not helping his case when he orders his men to physically block the way to the American embassy where Robert can contact a defense lawyer. It makes him look like a Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop, and he realizes that Robert and Sophie are going to encounter the real killer and he inadvertently endangered them. By then, Teabing has more kills— he turns in Silas to the cops, who dies after delivering a wounded Bishop Aringosa to the hospital. He also kills Remy, his loyal servant, to tie up a loose end. Fache in the end can only rescue Robert and Sophie after they thwart Teabing's attempt to get the Grail, apologize strenuously to them, visit Bishop Aringosa in his room and hear his wishes to donate the 20 million Vatican bonds he was supposed to give to a disguised Teabing to be distributed among the families of the man's victims. The French press has a field day with this, with one journalist pointing out that Fache violated protocol, national law, and certainly international law. Fache has opened up the police department to civil lawsuits if Robert or Sophie were more vengeful, and the end of his career. He discusses with Aringosa that for his men's sake, he should consider retirement and take the heat off them.  
  • The Devil Wears Prada
    • Andy Sachs has started a stressful job as the junior personal assistant to Miranda Priestly. This job means working fourteen hours a day, with weekends and vacations getting compromised. She plans to move up after a year, to work at The New Yorker possibly and then spend time with the people she loves afterwards.
      You'd Expect: Her friends and family would accommodate her. Alex is one thing, since he hits his Rage Breaking Point when Andy has to cancel a trip on them and is understandably furious about the late notice. But Andy's parents both know how much she wants to visit her sister and see her niece.
      Instead: When Andy has to go to Paris with Miranda after Emily contracts mono, her mother implies that she'd rather if Andy came to visit them or went to see her sister. Her dad is a bit more reasonable but still wants her to come home for a family emergency. Andy has to point out that she doesn't want to go to Paris but the other choice is to get fired and then her whole year will be for nothing..
    • Lily is a grad student in Russian literature. While working on her PhD, she starts drinking a lot. So much, in fact, that she alienates one guy she likes and takes a crackhead to bed, all the while blacked out. Also, she gets arrested for flipping the bird at a cop while intoxicated. She actually has an Oh, Crap! reaction when Andy points out that for the latter to happen, Lily would have to be really drunk.
      You'd Expect: Lily is an adult. She can get herself to a doctor or to AA. Andy is her friend and roommate, but Andy lacks time and energy to be a caretaker.
      Instead: Lily keeps drinking the rest of the year away, and snarking about how her life is going down the drain. Whenever Andy tries to bring it up, she changes the subject until Miranda calls Andy away for various errands. There is also the number of classes that she's missing and papers she's not writing.
      The Result: While Andy is in Paris, Lily ends up driving drunk, with an ex who cheated on her and boasted about it. She has a head-on collision with a cab driver and ends up in a coma. Andy freaks out when she hears of this, because Miranda will fire her if she leaves Paris. When Miranda finds out, she praises Andy for committing to her job, and then gives her an Impossible Task that causes Andy to curse her out, get fired, and leave her in the lurch. Lily ends up having to withdraw for the semester so she can recover and do community service after she wakes up from her coma. So technically it's Lily's fault that Andy loses her job, though she jokes that Andy was the one compromising her principles.
  • Discworld:
    • Lords and Ladies: Magrat is a lower-level semi-retired witch who has been wounded by an elf's arrow, and while recovering Granny Weatherwax has her placed in the castle surrounded by iron to protect her from the elves.
      You'd Expect: Magrat to just listen to Granny and leave things be, considering the older woman has spent the entire last three books being right about damn near everything, and there's already an unmistakably elven arrow sticking out of the younger witch.
      Instead: Magrat spontaneously declares she knows better, because she's about to be queen and "everyone knows Elves are nice," and has the iron barriers removed from the room, which of course ends up attracting the psychotic elves to the castle.
    • Equal Rites has the opening scene in which a dying wizard travels to a village where an eighth son of an eighth son is being born, intending to pass his magic power on to them.
      You'd Expect: That he and the blacksmith (the eighth son about to have an eighth son) would first make sure that the newborn is in fact male.
      Instead: They just go ahead with the transfer, learning soon afterwards that the child is in fact a girl. Said girl is ultimately faced with the hardships of being the first female wizard and having to try and get into the boys-only Unseen University, lest she lose control of the wizard power within her.
    • In Mort, the titular protagonist is warned never to interfere in history while performing his duty as Death.
      You'd Expect: For him not to intervene, especially for someone he barely knows at all.
      Instead: He decides to Always Save the Girl.
      The Result: Mort very nearly screws up history.
  • In the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series:
    • There is at least one scenario per book where Protagonist Greg gets in trouble.
      You'd Expect: That he would just explain what happened that got himself there.
      Instead: He opts to run away or tries to make himself look better.
      The Result: Greg ends up in more trouble than he may have already been in.
    • In Rodrick Rules, Rodrick is sick on the day he's supposed to get his school picture in his sophomore year. Susan asks Frank to look around and find a photo of Rodrick and send it to the school.
      You'd Expect: Frank would try to look for a recent picture of Rodrick to use. Failing that, he could just use the school picture of him that was taken the year before.
      Instead: He sends the school a photo of Rodrick that was taken when he was in second grade. Even Greg is amazed at how badly his dad screwed up.
      Even Worse: Not only did the school not ask for a more recent one after seeing the one of second grade Rodrick, but they actually used that picture and put it in the yearbook.
    • From the same book, Greg tells a story of how he was hired by some of his neighbors to take care of their dog while they went away on a trip for the whole summer.
      You'd Expect: Greg would check up on the dog once or twice each day to make sure it gets fed properly and doesn't make any messes. Additionally, if (for some reason) he can't take care of the dog for a prolonged period of time, he'd get someone else (like Rowley or Rodrick) to take care of it.
      Instead: For the last two weeks, Greg decides to leave the dog alone until the day before the neighbors come back, so he can clean up whatever mess was made in one go.
      As a Result: Not only does the dog use the bathroom all over the house, but by dumb luck, the neighbors chose to come home a day early. In the end, Greg does not make a single penny.
    • Yet another example from Rodrick Rules. When Greg is running late on a History project, Rodrick offers to sell him his old assignment in exchange for 20% of Greg's stash of counterfeit Mom Bucks.
      You'd Expect: Rodrick to follow a similar course of action as Greg: Only use a few Mom Bucks at a time, and actually earn some on his own so Susan doesn't get suspicious.
      Instead: Rodrick tries to cash $20,000 all at once to buy a used motorcycle. Not only that, but he did it before even earning a single Mom Buck on his own.
      As a Result: Susan is very suspicious and finds out about Greg's counterfeits, causing her to quickly end the Mom Bucks program.
  • In The Divine Comedy, Virgil is told by the Always Chaotic Evil devils damned in the circle for Consummate Liars that the bridge out of their circle has been destroyed and that it is now impossible to move on past this shortcut the devils know.
    You'd Expect: That Virgil would ignore the literal demons and take the path God has lined out.
    Instead: Virgil takes the devils' advice and goes their way.
    The Result: The devils attempt to kill Virgil and his charge, forcing them to jump out of the circle down into the pit of the hypocrites, who make fun of Virgil for not sticking on his original path.
  • Dog Man:
    • In "Robo-Chief", chapter 2 of Dog Man, the Chief receives a visit from the Mayor, who threatens to fire him and replace him with a robot if he fails to stop any more crimes. Dog Man finds out that the Mayor is actually plotting to take over the city. Achieving this goal requires the use of invisible spray.
      You'd Expect: She would simply use it on herself and, say, go around causing property damage, rob banks or let every imprisoned crook out of jail completely undetected. Then, she'd have "evidence" to fire the Chief.
      Instead: She mails it to Petey the Cat in his jail cell. While he uses it to break out of jail and the Mayor gets the Chief fired as she intended, her plan backfires not long after she has crime stores. Petey doesn't take kindly to this and retaliates by using his invisibility to scare every potential customer. However, upon being informed that the stores are "haunted", she puts two and two together that Petey is behind it.
      You'd Then Expect: The Mayor to trick Petey into visiting her lair with the promise of a "reward" only to wash the spray off instead and lock him up.
      Instead: She sends Robo-Chief to destroy him only for Petey to dupe the robot into destroying every evil shop and blowing itself up. Her plan is doubly foiled when Dog Man reveals her evil plan via cell-phone recording, which ultimately gets her imprisoned.
  • 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 Van Helsing as their mentor, 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 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.
    • Dracula's not exactly a genius in the story either.
      You'd Expect: After the heroes catch onto what Dracula is and try to ward him off, for him to have the common sense to kidnap Lucy away from the bedroom. Finish vamping her then use her to lure Mina away and make her his as well or even better as a distraction to the heroes while he move in on Mina.
      Instead: He leaves Lucy there, giving the heroes a perfect example what vampirism is and how to kill it. And thus how to kill him.
      Furthermore: Why didn't he bother to take his brides along with him as well? It obvious the main characters outnumbered him even with his power. More backup would've benefited him greatly during his blood drinking spree.
    • Johnathan Harker learns on June 30 the brides will eat him
      You'd expect: He would get out of there right away.
      Instead: He waits until the day the brides will eat him.
  • The Draka: There's a huge, slave-owning militaristic empire called Draka, and it's threatening to invade all free, democratic countries, having already conquered Africa and much of Asia.
    You'd Expect: All, or at least most, of the civilized nations of the world to try to stop this Evil Empire. If politics or diplomacy won't persuade Draka to stop, then the civilied nations should take military action against it. After all, Draka does give other nations far more reason to attack them than most anywhere else in the world.
    Instead: The rest of the world passes up every opportunity to stop them. No country, not even the United States ever tries to go on the offensive against Draka, basically allowing them to always go to war on their own terms.
    The Result: Draka takes over the world.
  • The Dresden Files:
    • The series as a whole: Harry consistently refuses to tell his friends and allies important information, including about the enemy they're facing at the time, justifying it as "protecting" them. It constantly backfires, but Harry just doesn't learn his lesson.
    • In Blood Rites: Harry Dresden, after being attacked by Black Court vampires, decides he wants to clear out Mavra’s scourge.
      You'd Expect: That he would call Michael Carpenter. Michael has fought the Black Court before, he wields a holy blade, and he’s Harry’s friend and would gladly help him out.
      Instead: He calls Jared Kincaid. Kincaid is a brutal mercenary who can handle Black Court vampires, yes. But his rates are also very expensive, and Harry is chronically broke. And professional assassins aren’t known for being forgiving when it comes to being stiffed on their bill, which Harry himself acknowledges.
      Thankfully: Thomas pays Kincaid’s bill for Harry.
      Even So: Thomas had to use all of the money his sister Lara had allowed him to take, and he and Harry really could have used the money.
    • In Proven Guilty: Molly manifests dangerous, magical powers which she knows nothing about. Fortunately, one of her dad's friends is an experienced magical practitioner.
      You'd Expect: That Molly would call him and ask for advice.note .
      Instead: She doesn't, being too proud to ask for help. End result, people die when a spell Molly attempts backfires. Another character actually lampshades how stupid Molly's actions were.
    • In Skin Game, one of Butters' allies- an extremely powerful wizard- has been acting suspicious recently, prompting Butters to fear that the wizard might have switched sides.
      You'd Expect: That Butters would investigate the situation cautiously, given that this wizard is famously paranoid and could easily smoosh Butters into paste.
      Instead: Butters places a listening device. On the man who he already fears might want to kill him. note  Spoiler alert: this backfires.
    • A cross-book example: Murphy knows well that all Knights of the Cross must abide by a specific set of rules (lest they destroy the unique, divinely-enchanted Swords that grant each Knight their power). She refuses to become a Knight because- as Murphy herself admits- she cannot follow those rules.
      You'd Expect: That that would be the end of it.
      Instead: In a later book, Murphy takes one of the Swords with her into a battlefield- despite knowing that she can't wield it without breaking it (and having plenty of other, safer, weapons at her disposal), and if a Sword breaks, the forces of capital 'G' Good would be terribly crippled. Naturally, once things get rough, she draws the Sword... and Nicodemus promptly takes advantage of her stupidity to emotionally blackmail her into destroying the Sword.
      Even Worse: At no point does Murphy tell anyone she's carrying this highly sacred, important artifact with her. As a result, her allies make several tactical decisions that- unbeknownst to them- place it in danger.
    • In Bombshells, Andi becomes upset with Molly. Molly is a very powerful, paranoid, morally ambiguous wizard who has easily incapacitated Andi's friends. However, Andi does not want to become Molly's enemy, as their current alliance is too important to risk.
      You'd Expect: That Andi would therefore express her anger verbally, not physically (as the former is less likely to get her killed).
      Instead: Next time they meet, Andi greets Molly by slapping her in the face.
      Even Worse: After Molly recovers from the slap, she is understandably reluctant to discuss anything with Andi... so Andi shoves her into a wall. This does not make the situation any better. In fact, it almost results in Andi getting beaten to a pulp.
  • In Xenophon's The Education of Cyrus, Astyages, King of the Medes, wants revenge on his brother Harpagus for something or another. He therefore finds Harpagus' son, slaughters him, invites Harpagus to a grand banquet, and serves the son as a main course. So far, so good. What's important is what comes afterward:
    You'd Expect: Astyages would keep his mouth shut about feeding his brother his son.
    Or: Astyages would tell Harpagus what was in his dinner, and then imprison or execute him.
    Instead: Astyages lets Harpagus figure it out and then puts him in charge of an army.
    Even Worse: The army Astyages is put in charge of is going to Persia to fight Astyages' grandson, a half-Mede who has become King of Persia. His name? Cyrus. His aim? Conquest. Will he ally with his great-uncle to beat his grandpa? You bet.
  • In Easter Egg Disaster, Harry and Emily are trying to make Easter eggs and chocolate eggs for an Easter egg hunt. They finally manage to make some (albeit with a lot of trouble, such as their eggs being dyed brown), but then have to figure out where to hide them.
    You'd Expect: They would hide the eggs outside, like in the garden or in bushes.
    Instead: They hide the eggs around the house, like in their father's boots, gloves and hat, in the oven, in the refrigerator, and in the pan.
    You'd Also Expect: Their mother to notice the chocolate eggs in her husband's gloves and hat.
    Instead: She doesn't and puts them on the radiator.
    Predictably: This doesn't go well at all. When he tries to put on his boots, the father cracks the Easter eggs on his feet. When he puts on his gloves and hat, the melted chocolate eggs spread over his body. The mother melts more eggs when she turns on the oven and uses the pot.
    Worse Yet: Harry and Emily boiled all the eggs in the house, leaving none for dinner.
    Luckily: They make things right with an apology card, and the Easter Bunny still comes.
  • Ella by Bill Peet: Ella, the elephant of the Bell Brothers Circus, has let the praise that the audience gives her for being a star performer go to her head. One day while it's raining, the circus staff make her help them get one of the wagons out of a mud hole. This makes her sulk, and she quits the circus. However, as the train pulls out, she has a change of heart and pursues the train while trumpeting through her trunk, but the train is too noisy for her to be heard. Therefore, she continues to follow the track, hoping to locate them in the next town, where she knows they'll stop. Unfortunately, she walks from sunrise to sunset "without even passing through one tiny town". She gets hungry, and eats a haystack on a nearby farm. Lucifer Kirk, the farmer, notices this.
    You'd Expect: Mr. Kirk would notice Ella's robe and headdress, and, realizing that she's from the circus, he'd call them to report that she's on his farm.
    Instead: He puts her to work doing farm chores such as pulling the plow, mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, picking the apples, gathering the eggs, and feeding the pigs. The only chore that she enjoys is watering the flowers.
    You'd Wonder: How he can afford to feed her, considering how much food and water an elephant requires daily (as a female Asiatic elephant, she's a mammal who weighs roughly 3 tons), and why he makes her gather the eggs. She can fit only her head and one of her front legs into the henhouse, frightening the hens and causing them to try to drive her away by pecking her trunk, which causes her to drop and break several of the eggs.
    Even Worse: Mr. Kirk makes Ella gather firewood during the winter, which is further proof that he should have called the circus as soon as she showed up on his farm. Unlike their extinct relatives, the mammoths, present-day elephants are not adapted to this type of climate.
    Fortunately: Ella survives the winter, and when the hears the circus train's whistle one morning in May, she escapes from the farm.''
    Extra Points: Mr. Kirk's dog starts to "help his master track her down"—but he leads him in the wrong direction on purpose, and lets Ella return to the circus.
  • Ella Enchanted:
    • Lucinda the fairy is a laughingstock and a moral hazard. As Mandy explains to Ella, most fairies engage in small magic — like medicinal tonic and enchanted books — because big magic like altering the weather or people's minds can cause devastating consequences. Lucinda has a reputation for enchanting babies and married couples. If they complain, then she turns them into squirrels.
      You'd Expect: The other fairies to suggest that Lucinda try out her "blessings" and realize how horrible they are.
      Instead: They try to verbally reason with her. When Ella begs for her gift to be removed, while attending a giants' wedding and pretending not to understand Kyrian, Lucinda orders her to be happy to be obedient. Mandy only comes up with the suggestion when Ella is desperate.
      The Result: By the time Lucinda has her Heel Realization, there are too many people she has cursed to undo, and besides which she doesn't have the power to undo Ella's curse. In the companion novel "Fairest", Lucinda's wedding present to Queen Ivi endangers all of Ayorthia.
    • Ella when she is a teenager falls ill. So does her mother. It's a contagious, potentially fatal disease. Mandy, the family cook and unknown to Ella her fairy godmother, makes them a medicinal soup with unicorn hairs. As Ella says, the soup is delicious but the unicorn hairs are gross-looking.
      You'd Expect: Mandy to have emphasized to Ella and her mother to eat the damn hairs because they have healing properties.
      You'd Also Expect: Ella's mother to know better and eat the soup as is. Mandy always makes things to benefit the family, not hurt them.
      Instead: Ella's mother plucks the hairs out of her soup and leaves it in the bowl afterward. By the time Mandy finds out, Ella recovers but her mother succumbs to the fatal disease.
      The Result: Ella becomes bereft, and her father loses the voice of reason in the house. He marries Dame Olga for her money after he's caught in the middle of a scam. Dame Olga then steals most of Ella's things, as well as her mother's things, and treats her as little better than a servant.
    • We also have Ella's situation. Mandy knows that Dame Olga, Hattie and Olive are abusing her. Also, since Ella has her curse, she really can't marry anyone without endangering them.
      You'd Expect: Mandy to have surreptitiously planned for her and Ella to leave and seek work as cooks, as she suggests in the climax. She is loyal to Ella Frell, not her deadbeat father who is away or to the new family.
      Instead: Mandy expects Ella to leave the situation as is, since she reasons that Ella wouldn't need to leave unless things get desperate, and in the meantime she can work on Lucinda to undo the curse. "Desperate" translates to Hattie unmasking Ella at the ball and Char chasing after a fleeing Ella.
      The Result: It works out because Ella breaks her curse turning down Char's marriage proposal, but Ella could have avoided being her stepfamily's unpaid servant if Mandy had thought of this plan sooner.
    • Ella has been cursed to always be obedient since she was a baby. Prince Char, whom she is in love with, has just asked her to marry him. However, Ella is worried that people will use her curse to harm Char if she marries him. She has also been commanded to tell nobody about her curse. Mandy, her fairy godmother, has known Ella and known about her curse since she was born.
      You'd Expect: Ella to get Mandy to order her to tell Char about her curse, which would undo the original order not to tell anyone, and allow her to give Char a proper explanation for why they should not marry.
      Instead: She pretends to be a gold-digger who only wanted Char for his money, and has now eloped and married a rich man, to drive Char away from her.
      In Addition: At one point, Ella even comes up with the idea of telling Mandy to reverse her order, but seems unable to apply this to the idea of not marrying Char, instead lamenting that there are few precautions Char could take if she was his wife even if he knew about her curse.
      As A Result: Ella puts herself and Char through a lot of unnecessary emotional pain. It does eventually lead to her curse breaking, but there was no possible way for Ella to know this.
    • Ogres have Compelling Voices. Ella has a gift for languages and discovers she can mimic their voices well enough to copy their power. Some of the knights also try it and find they can also do this, but not as well as Ella.
      You'd Expect: Anybody at all to realise the potential of what is essentially a free superpower.
      Instead: Nobody does. After Ella uses it for the first time (to escape some ogres), it's only ever mentioned again in passing and never used again in a meaningful way.
  • The Emperor's New Clothes: In this story by Hans Christian Andersen, the Emperor hires two weavers to make a set of clothes. The weavers claim that the clothes are invisible to anyone who is foolish or incompetent. Afraid that he won’t be able to see the clothes, the Emperor sends his ministers to see them. Because the clothes do not exist, the ministers do not see them.
    You’d Expect: The ministers to realize the trick since they can’t see the clothes and tell the Emperor the truth.
    Instead: They are fooled into thinking the clothes do exist and pretend they can see them, even when they go back to tell the Emperor about it. After that, the Emperor himself goes in to see the clothes, and obviously can't see them either. Like his ministers, he pretends he can see them as does everyone else. It isn’t until he parades through the streets naked and a child calls out that he’s not wearing any clothes that he realizes that he’s been tricked.
  • Ender's Game: Ender is created to be the perfect general to fight the Formics, space aliens that resemble insects. To do so, his commanding officer Colonel Graff is a Drill Sergeant Nasty that pushes him to the breaking point multiple times. He justifies the abuse by the logic that "it works".
    You'd Expect: Once the war is over, Graff would do all that he could to make sure that Ender is accounted for at the end of the war, physically and emotionally. Ender saved humanity just to rescue his sister Valentine, but is obviously traumatized on realizing that he was tricked into fighting the war by being told it was just a simulation and final exam. Practically speaking, Graff has no reassurance that Ender would turn on the people he helped after being deceived into surrendering his childhood.
    Instead: Graff leaves Ender alone on the base after he's cleared of his crimes, taking the government job he wants.
    The Result: Ender becomes The Atoner after suffering Heroic BSoD for days on end, and makes sure that humanity never forgives him for wiping out all the Formics by writing their queen's eulogy under a pseudonym. After he had accepted a governor position on the Formics' homeworld as a means of atonement, he resigns and takes the last Formic queen to various world, to save the race and make up for what he did. If the queen had been vengeful, she could have easily restarted the crisis and this time Ender would have been too weary to commit xenocide again.
  • Ender's Shadow: In the companion series to Ender's Game, Colonel Graff is trying to mold Bean into a perfect general that can help Ender. Which includes throwing him into the deep end and researching his past, including his friendship with a bully named Achilles. Sister Carlotta has warned Graff against this, since she took in Bean after he ran away from Achille's gang.
    You'd Expect: Graff would probe further and ask Sister Carlotta why she doesn't want Achilles to encounter Bean again. His goal is to win a war with the Formics, not sacrifice lives needlessly.
    Instead: He brings Achille to the Battle School, as a means of motivating Bean to become better.
    The Result: Graff goes Oh, Crap! when Sister Carlotta informs him that Achilles is a murderer who kills anyone that sees him in a Moment of Weakness, including the previous leader of Bean's gang —a little girl named Poke—, a doctor who insisted on anesthetizing him for a necessary surgery. Since Bean has seen Achilles pinned down and ordered Poke to kill him, that means that Achilles is gunning for him, and Achilles is a pro at killing people and making authorities look the other way. By this time, as Graff points out, he's under court-martial and has been removed from Battle School, so there's nothing he can do but hope that Bean and his army can outwit Achilles.
  • Eva Luna: During her times as a live-in shop assistant in a small village, Eva steps into her bosses's bedroom one morning and sees the corpse of her boss' wife, Zulema, who has shot herself dead after being unable to get over her massive depression.
    You'd Expect: For Eva to not touch anything in the room, and immediately go to the police and others so they can help her out, locate the boss who's in a business trip outside the village, and deal as normally as possible with the investigations and the funeral..
    Instead: Eva decides to say her goodbyes to Zulema in the worst moment possible, cleaning her corpse and then dressing her up to cope with the loss. She's soon Mistaken for Murderer and subjected to Police Brutality before the boss returns and manages to bail her out.
  • The Enormous Crocodile: The titular Crocodile has decided that he wishes to eat children.
    You'd Expect: The Crocodile to make sure no one else knows about what he's up to. Even if he is a predator, someone might do something if they knew what he was intending.
    Instead: He fully reveals what he wants to do to both another crocodile and four other animals; a hippo, an elephant, a monkey, and a bird.
    Unsurprisingly: During his attempts to eat children, the latter four each disrupt his attempts and alert the children to what he's up to, with the hippo outright attacking him. His loose lips even result in his death, as the elephant decides to stop him for good by throwing him into the sun.
  • Fables (1980): Twenty fables written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel feature anthropomorphic animal characters who learn important lessons.
    • In "The Baboon's Umbrella", a Baboon is taking a walk on a sunny day, carrying his umbrella in case it rains. His umbrella is stuck and can't be closed, and he is thus unable to enjoy the sunshine. He laments this to his friend, the Gibbon, whose advice is to cut holes in the umbrella to let the sun through.
      You'd Expect: The Baboon would point out that this is a bad idea, as his umbrella would no longer be able to serve its intended purpose, and the Gibbon would suggest that instead, the Baboon simply hold the umbrella (the handle of which is nearly a yard long, based on the illustration) horizontally on his shoulder, pointing backwards.
      Instead: The Baboon takes his friend's advice and cuts a dozen holes in his umbrella. He then briefly enjoys the sunshine when he returns to his walk, but soon it starts raining. The moral is that "advice from friends is like the weather. Some of it is good; some of it is bad".
    • In "The Poor Old Dog", a homeless, ragged Dog, who sleeps on a park bench, finds a gold ring, and wishes for a house, a new coat, and new shoes. Obviously, nothing happens right then and there, but several days later, he finds a note saying that the ring belongs to Mr. Terrier of 10 Wealthy Lane, and that there is a large reward for its return. The Dog returns the ring.
      You'd Expect: Mr. Terrier, after noticing that the Dog is poor, would invite him to come and work for him, and pay the Dog enough money for this to afford a house and better clothes.
      Instead: He simply gives him a purse containing enough money for the Dog to afford the clothes, and a down payment on a "cozy little house".
      Fortunately: It is stated that the Dog never had to sleep in the park again, so perhaps Mr. Terrier actually did pay him to work for him. The moral is that "wishes, on their way to coming true, will not be rushed".
    • In "The Elephant and his Son", it is evening, and Father Elephant and his son are in their bathrobes, pajamas, and slippers. Father Elephant is reading his newspaper, The Daily Trumpet. He's also smoking a cigar, which causes his left slipper to catch on fire. Elephant Son notices this.
      You'd Expect: Elephant Son would exclaim, "Papa! Your slipper is on fire!", and his father would put it out.
      Instead: Elephant Son just suggests that his father think about his slipper rather than his newspaper, with Father Elephant replying that the latter is far more interesting, important, and informative. It takes about a minute for Elephant Son to warn his father about it, via a conversation between him and Father Elephant.
      Elephant Son: Papa, can you still think about only one thing at a time?
      Father Elephant: Yes, my boy, that is correct.
      Elephant Son: Well, then, you might stop thinking about your newspaper and begin to think about the slipper that is on your left foot.
      Father Elephant: But my boy, Papa's newspaper is far more interesting and important and informative than the slipper that is on his left foot.
      Elephant Son: That may be true, but while your newspaper is not on fire from the ashes of your cigar, the slipper that is on your left foot certainly is!
Fortunately: Elephant Son does warn his father about the burning slipper immediately afterwards, prompting Father Elephant to put it out with a bucket of water. The moral is that "knowledge will not always take the place of simple observation".
  • Fangirl has two moments:
    • Cath is an avid fanfiction writer, and she asked for special permission to attend a junior-level creative writing class. Thus far, she has submitted original works for her assignments, either working with Nick or solo. They are given an Unreliable Narrator assignment, and Cath has the perfect idea for Baz.
      You'd Expect: That with the Unreliable Narrator assignment, she wouldn't use Baz's name and just use a vampire. Vampires are public domain.
      Instead: She submits Baz fanfic for her unreliable narrator assignment because she considers it one of her best works. (The manga confirms that it was good writing based on the excerpts included, but still!)
      The Result: Professor Piper has to flunk the homework assignment, and gives a mild lecture to Cath about what plagiarism is. It wrecks Cath for the day, but Levi reassures her that it was a good thing that Professor didn't turn her into the Honor Council. He points out that the simple solution is don't submit fanfiction.
      Fortunately: Cath learns from this. All of her work onward is original when submitted to class.
    • Wren is a Hard-Drinking Party Girl compared to her twin sister Cath's Shrinking Violet persona. Cath rarely goes out with her, if ever, and refuses to hang out with her and Courtney. The one time she shows up is when Wren sends her a text only saying, "911" and Cath is furious to find out the text was meant for Courtney about a guy she liked when she shows up and sees Wren fine but sloshed, screaming that she thought Wren was badly hurt or drugged because "911 is for emergencies!" Wren's boyfriend punches out a drunk talking about an twin threesome fantasy, forcing them to vacate the bar.
      You'd Expect: Wren could be a jerk, but she could at least reassure Cath that she has someone watching for her. Or, at least promise to not use "911" in that sense again.
      Instead: Wren ignores basic safety and refuses to tell Cath where she's going or reassure her that she's not going to be an idiot about her drinking.
      The Result: The sisters don't speak for a few months, and not helping is that their estranged mother is reaching out to them, causing Cath and Wren to fight about seeing "Laura" again. She ends up hospitalized for alcohol poisoning. Someone dumps her at the hospital, implied to be Courtney, and the doctors call up Laura since she's listed as Wren's mother on Wren's phone, who calls Cath on said cell. Cath nearly doesn't pick up because she's suspicious it's another "911" text. Art, their dad, has to spell out to Wren that what she did was stupid and reckless, and she could have died. He makes her attend AA meetings on the threat of pulling her out of school.
  • The Fault in Our Stars.
    • Hazel Lancaster is a fan of Peter Van Houten, the author of An Imperial Affliction. She writes to him, as does her new friend and later boyfriend Augustus Waters. Van Houten is a depressed writer who was having an invoked Creator Breakdown about losing his daughter. But he has enough courtesy to send emails to her, or at least have his assistant Lidewij do the job.
      You'd Expect: Whoever is sending the letters to not make empty promises. Hazel is a survivor of a cancer that should have killed her at thirteen, and she is stubborn and sarcastic.
      Instead: Either Van Houten or Lidewij invites Hazel to visit if she can ever make it to Amsterdam. Houten admits that he might have done it because he didn't expect a terminally ill girl to actually make the trip.
      The Result: Augustus uses his Genies wish to get the trip going, and despite Hazel getting tons of fluid in her lungs and requiring a painful hospital visit, her parents coordinate with doctors and Lidewij to make the Amsterdam vacation a reality. Lidewij tries her best to make the trip go smoothly, but she can't stop the pair's Broken Pedestal moment when they meet her boss.
    • Hazel and Augustus have traveled to Europe to visit Van Houten. Little do they know, he's a colossal jackass and a drunk. His assistant Lidewij is a Nice Girl in contrast, who wants to make the best of the trip.
      You'd Expect: That Lidewij, after arranging for fans of Van Houten to come to Amsterdam, warn them of the man he really is and offer to take them on a tour of her Dutch town while talking about the book. They never meet Van Houten, and Van Houten gets to be left alone as he wanted.
      Instead: Though his assistant treats Hazel and Augustus to a candlelit romantic dinner, with champagne and all, Hazel and Augustus receive a nasty shock. Lidewij underestimates her boss's cruelty and was hoping that their visit would restore his spirits, especially with her subtle hints to him to be polite. Van Houten repeatedly insults and belittles them, claims that Augustus 'must have a brain tumor the size of a golf ball' and drives Hazel to tears. It's only then that the assistant intervenes and does what she can to make their trip to Europe not a complete disaster.
  • In Stephen King's Firestarter, the sadistic John Rainbird is in the loft of a barn, holding Charlie hostage, threatening to kill her if Andy tries to use his mental domination abilities on him. Andy risks it and gives Rainbird a command he is forced to obey.
    You'd Expect: Andy would say "sleep" or something similar. (He once did that with a Mook, sending him to a coma that lasted for six months). Also, there is no reason to believe that "die" isn't a valid command.
    Instead: Andy commands Rainbird to jump out of the loft, which, while severely injuring him, isn't fatal. And while it does save Charlie, it gives Rainbird the opportunity to mortally wound Andy and almost kill Charlie with his gun.
  • Flipped:
    • Bryce strongly dislikes his neighbor Julie because she is a Stalker with a Crush. She tries sniffing his hair at school, chases him, and is a bit of a jerk. Eventually, however, she mellows, and starts giving free eggs from her chickens. Bryce's family suspects the eggs have salmonella and don't want any more because of the ensuing arguments.
      You'd Expect: Bryce would just tell Julie thanks for the eggs, but that his family doesn't need them. She is selling them for money.
      Instead: He keeps intercepting her home deliveries and tosses them straight in the trash. He does this for several years. When Julie eventually catches and confronts him, he then tells her the salmonella excuse due to her yard being dirty.
      The Result: Julie's crush on Bryce evaporates; she starts cleaning the yard with a fury, and tells his grandfather Don't You Dare Pity Me! when he comes to help. Bryce also knows that he messed up, because at some point someone will tell his family what he did with the eggs; Julie tells his grandfather, and he decides to come clean to his mother when the latter hosts a dinner. He also realizes, to his horror, that he's now falling for Julie, but now she hates him, for a good reason.
    • Eventually, Bryce's father starts heckling Chet for hanging out more with Julie than with Bryce. Chet then tries to explain that he's helping because Julie's family has been through a lot. It's revealed that Bryce, like Julie's uncle, was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck but while Bryce's doctor waved him, Julie's uncle wasn't so lucky and became brain-damaged and his brother has to pay to keep him in assisted living.
      You'd Expect: Bryce's dad to have some sensitivity and basic decency around his family members, especially when Chet reveals the story.
      Instead: He makes a mean crack about how the genes for the family must be bad. Everyone goes [invoked] Dude, Not Funny! at him, and he and his wife get into a bad fight when Chet reveals the truth, since Bryce's mother has always been terrified about what could have happened to her child.
      The Result: Bryce's dad spends the night on the couch, but still going Never My Fault even when his wife tells him to behave like the man she married. By the end, she's contemplating divorce.
  • Forbidden Fruit: An insane woman is part of a religious cult which she is zealously devoted to. One of the cult's leaders prophecies that a child will be born, a boy who will be the chosen one, etc, etc. The woman ends up impregnating her daughter with the prophet's sperm, and her daughter becomes pregnant (and doesn't know how it could have happened), but ends up running away because she hates her mother and doesn't want her to get her hands on the baby when it's born. After successfully evading her mother, the young woman has to go to hospital to give birth. After she does, her crazy mother does her best to get her hands on the newborn baby so she can take him to the religious leader.
    You'd Expect: That she'd actually try to make sure that the baby fits the criteria — specifically, she should make sure that it's a boy first, given that the cult is very misogynistic, so it's not like it won't matter if the baby isn't male.
    Instead: She doesn't, and the baby is a girl.

  • Fox On The Job (1988) by James Marshall.
    • In a world of anthropomorphic animals, Fox wrecks his bike, and takes his mother's advice to get a job to earn money for a new one. His first attempt is working at a shoe store. The owner, a rooster, expects him to be honest. A lady, who is a kangaroo, comes in and requests "pretty little pink shoes". However, like most kangaroos, she has large feet, and Fox innocently points this out to her.
      You'd Expect: The lady would think nothing of Fox's remark, since large feet are typical for kangaroos, and this feature makes them very good at jumping.
      Also, You'd Wonder: How this store stays in business, when apparently the only character in the book who wears shoes is Dr. Jane, the veterinarian, who is a cow. It's possible that the lady is friends with Dr. Jane, and wants these shoes as a present for her.
      Instead: The lady takes offense ("He said I have big feet!").
      You'd Expect: The store owner would remember that he told Fox to be honest, and explain to the lady that Fox wasn't deliberately trying to be offensive.
      Instead: The owner comforts the lady by telling her that her feet are tiny, and fires Fox. This is completely unreasonable, since Fox was simply being honest, as the owner told him to be, and the owner wasn't honest himself. Fox had no way of knowing that the lady was ashamed of her large feet.
    • Another of Fox's attempts is making deliveries for Big Daddy's Pizza. The owner (a dog) tells Fox to deliver a pizza to Mrs. O'Hara (a hare) who is having a party and has been waiting for a long time. Fox runs off, but crashes into his younger sister, Louise, who is skateboarding while carrying her pet mice in a box to the vet. Unlike most of the other animals in this book, the mice are normal-sized for their species (rather than human-sized). Both of them drop their boxes, and Fox runs off with his sister's mice to Mrs. O'Hara, while Louise brings the pizza to Dr. Jane.
      You'd Then Expect: Fox would notice that unlike the pizza box, the box that he is currently carrying has air holes, and Louise would notice that the box that she is carrying has no air holes (and possibly also feels warm), and they'd go back and switch boxes.
      Instead: This doesn't occur to either of them, and Fox delivers what he thinks is the pizza to Mrs. O'Hara.
      You'd Then Expect: Mrs. O'Hara would notice that the box doesn't look like a pizza box, and tell Fox to go back and get the right one.
      Instead: She accepts what he brings her.
      The Result: When she opens the box, Louise's mice—there are at least nine of them—get loose in the house and ruin the party. Of course Fox get fired from this job as well.

  • Frankenstein:
    • A young man discovers how to bring something to life, and makes a man out of parts from a graveyard. But after he brings it to life, he finds it is very ugly.
      You'd Expect: That Frankenstein would realize that ugliness is not a very important thing, especially when he had used parts of corpses to create the man, so it shouldn't be a surprise that his creation is ugly.
      Instead: Frankenstein immaturely runs from his creation and lets it loose into the world.
    • 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 realizes the implications and destroys the mate, prompting the enraged Creature to swear to "rob him of his wedding night."
      You'd Expect: Frankenstein to realize, 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.
      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.
    • Also: Having almost finished building a companion for the monster, Frankenstein gets cold feet at the prospect that his two creations could breed and one day their progeny could TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!
      You'd Expect: That if Frankenstein's skilled enough to put together an entire living human being out of parts of dead people, he'd just leave the ovaries out, rendering her infertile.
      Instead: He tears apart his new creation right in front of the monster, provoking it into the acts listed above.
    • In a general sense, with the monster on the loose killing his loved ones,
      You'd Expect: Frankenstein to realize the situation is too much for him to handle on his own, and tell his family and the authorities about what happened.
      Instead: He still tries to handle things on his own, with disastrous results.
    • More to the point: A person discovers they have the ability to reanimate dead tissues.
      You'd Expect: Frankenstein to try smaller organisms first before working up to something like a human in order to get all the practice he needs to not screw it up.
      Instead: He goes straight to making a person without considering anything that could go wrong.
  • Freckle Juice (1971) by Judy Blume: A second-grader named Andrew Marcus envies his classmate Nicky Lane's freckles and wants his own. Another classmate, Sharon, sells Andrew a "recipe" for "freckle juice" for 50¢. After Andrew pays her, she throws the recipe on the floor; it lands halfway between their desks. He reaches out to pick it up, and he falls on the floor. Their teacher, Miss Kelly, notices this and she takes the recipe and reads it, telling Andrew that she'll give it back to him after school.
    You'd Expect: Miss Kelly, after reading it, would ask both Andrew and Sharon about it after school. Miss Kelly would thus realize that Sharon has conned Andrew out of his money (since the note claims that mixing grape juice, mayonnaise, vinegar, olive oil, ketchup, mustard, pepper, salt, lemon juice, and a speck of onion together produces a concoction that gives freckles to whomever drinks it), and she'd make her give him his money back.
    Instead: She realizes how important the note is to him, and she simply returns it to him. Later, at home, Andrew follows the recipe and drinks the "freckle juice". All it gives him is a stomachache—he doesn't feel well enough to even talk—and he has to stay home from school tomorrow.
    You'd Then Expect: While Andrew is at home, he'd tell his mother about his "deal" with Sharon, and his mother would call the school and tell them about it.
    Instead: Nobody brings this up at all, and the next day, when Andrew is well enough to go back to school, he brings a magic marker (blue, since he can't find a brown one) with him and draws freckles on his face. As Nicky points out, "Whoever heard of blue freckles?".
    Fortunately: Miss Kelly gives Andrew a note telling him how to wash his "freckles" off with the enclosed "magic freckle remover" (a lemon-scented bar of soap), and then she tells him that she finds him attractive just the way that he is.
    Unfortunately: Sharon receives no consequences, since Andrew still doesn't reveal her "secret recipe for freckle juice" to either his mother or Miss Kelly.

    Literature G-L 
  • Garfield's Picnic Adventure by Jim Davis and Jack C. Harris (1990).
    • The titular chubby tabby cat of Davis's popular comic strip observes his owner, cartoonist Jon Arbuckle, getting ready to take him and Odie, the dog, on a picnic. Jon realizes that he's forgotten the pickles, and decides to go to out and get some. Before this, he realizes that he has to take precautions against his furry friends sneaking the food.
      You'd Expect: Jon would take the picnic lunch with him.
      Instead: He simply ties the picnic basket shut with a string, and ties Odie to the door with a rope to prevent him from helping Garfield.
      You'd Then Expect: Garfield would simply cut the string with a pair of scissors (in the comic strip, he's proven that he knows how to use scissors).
      Instead: He goes to the trouble of figuring out how to get Odie to bite through his rope, and then through the string. Garfield and Odie eat all of the picnic food (as expected, Garfield eats most of it).
      Later: When Jon returns home with the pickles, he immediately sees that something's wrong. He opens the lid of the picnic basket, "only to find a stuffed Garfield smiling inside".
      The Result: Jon still wants to bring Garfield and Odie on the picnic, so he packs a new lunch, but resolves to share it only with Odie.
  • George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl (1981):
    • 8-year-old George Kranky lives with his parents and maternal grandmother on a farm. His grandmother is mean and grouchy towards him. She believes that he's growing too fast, and that when boys grow too fast, it makes them stupid and lazy. His parents, Killy and Mary Kranky, are aware of her negative attitude, as well. One Saturday, his parents are out for the morning, and they remind him to give Grandma her medicine at 11:00 AM. George considers Grandma's medicine useless, because it has never improved her attitude (in his narration, Dahl states, "She was always just as horrid after she'd had it as she'd been before. The whole point of medicine, surely, was to make a person better. If it didn't do that, then it was quite useless").
      You'd Expect: Mrs. Kranky would call the doctor and say that her mother appears to have grown immune to the medicine, and ask that the doctor prescribe her a different medicine.
      Instead: As the title indicates, George himself makes Grandma a new medicine, using virtually every soluble item that he finds around the house, such as his mother's lipstick, his father's shaving cream, a bottle of horseradish sauce, 500 pills for horses, half a pint of engine oil, and a pint and a half of brown paint (Grandma's original medicine was also brown).
      The Result: After he gives her the medicine, it makes her grow so tall that she can no longer sleep in the house, and she must instead sleep in the barn. However, it does her good in the sense that it makes her "as frisky as a ferret". George also gives the medicine to one of the family's chickens, and it makes her grow as well, but she retains her bodily proportions in her giant size. Later, George and his father use the rest of the medicine on the family's farm animals (the pigs, sheep, bullocks, goat, and pony). The medicine had made Grandma increase only in height, but it makes the animals retain all of their bodily proportions in their giant sizes. However, there is not enough medicine for all of the chickens.
      Later: George and his father make another version of the medicine, using the same ingredients as before, and give some to another chicken. All it does is make her legs grow. They make two more versions of the medicine, as George remembers a few ingredients that he has left out. The third version of the medicine makes a cockerel's neck grow, and the fourth version makes another chicken shrink to the size of a newly-hatched chick. They have a teacup full of the mixture. Grandma comes into the yard and demands to know where her morning cup of tea is. She notices the teacup George is holding, containing what appears to be tea, but is actually 50 doses of his "Marvelous Medicine Number Four". She grabs it, and Mr. Kranky encourages her to drink it, while George and his mother shout a warning to Grandma to refrain from this.
      The Result: Grandma, after drinking her "tea", shrinks back to normal size... but she keeps shrinking, until she becomes microscopic. Nobody can find her. "That's what happens to you if you're grumpy and bad-tempered", Mr. Kranky points out, and he adds, "Great medicine of yours, George".
  • The Godfather: Don Vito Corleone has one daughter, who has just married.
    You'd Expect: For her new husband to treat her with respect and courtesy, if only because not only does her father have a whole Syndicate family at his beck and call, he has a famously hotheaded oldest son who will not take well to mistreatment of his sister.
    Instead: Carlo cheats on his wife, slaps her around viciously, and, when he's angry at Sonny for giving him some of his own medicine, deliberately sets Sonny up for an ambush. He never figures out that his father-in-law and youngest brother-in-law have seen through his schemes.
  • Gone with the Wind:
    • Rhett Butler falls for Scarlett after he witnesses her tossing a knickknack in a fit of anger. He doesn't tell her at the time, since her anger was due to Ashley Wilkes refusing to break his engagement to Melanie Hamilton for her. Scarlett outlives her first husband, and Rhett keeps in contact with her.
      You'd Expect: That Rhett would eventually admit to Scarlett how he feels about her. Not telling her at the beginning was understandable, since she is The Tease and a Spoiled Brat, but he sees that she is resourceful and will do anything, including sleep with him, to save her home Tara.
      Instead: He doesn't. Rhett can't muster up any emotional honesty due to his belief that Scarlett destroys the ones that she loves. As a result, he becomes as emotionally abusive to her as she becomes to him. When she comes to him begging for money, while he's been sentenced to death, he's hurt that she only would give herself to him to save her home and lets her beg until he admits that he can't help her. And when he proposes to her, after her second husband dies, he tells her that they ought to get married "for fun" and hopes to win her over by treating her like a pet. The end result is that by the time Scarlett realizes she loves Rhett, he's burned out from their marriage and decides to leave her. He even lampshades that they should have been communicating with each other.
    • Following the end of the Civil War, the South is in despair. Reconstruction efforts mean that the Union soldiers hold the authority. They're targeting Ku Klux Klan members that have emerged. As a result, Scarlett makes Frank, her new husband, promise to never join the Ku Klux Klan no matter what. She may not love him, but she doesn't want him dead or a target of the law. He promises.
      You'd Expect: He would keep this promise, and that the men would all agree that joining the Klan would be stupid. They lost, are a little poorer for the side they chose and should feel lucky they weren't court-martialed after the war. Rhett got arrested for killing a man and barely evaded a death sentence.
      Instead: It turns out practically all of the white men in the area have joined the Klan, Rhett being the exception, if they were formerly wealthy before the war. India says with scathing pride that only "real men" would join the Klan. Even Ashley, known for being a lover more than a fighter, joined.
      The Result: Scarlett learns that Frank lied to her...hours after he and the Klan ride out to avenge her assault in Shantytown. She's genuinely horrified that he would risk his life for something so stupid, and even Melanie agrees. She tells India and Archie to not blame Scarlett for this because everyone behaved as they thought they should. All the ladies can do is wait, though Rhett comes to help and saves the men from being arrested when the Union soldiers investigate. Ashley gets shot and needs to cover up his injury on the pretext of being drunk, while Frank is killed. When India tries to blame Scarlett for Frank's death, Melanie shuts her up.
    • India Wilkes hates Scarlett for being a coquette, namely stealing away Charles Hamilton from her sister Honey and then her fiance Stuart Tarleton, who later dies in the war before India and he can get married. She's decided to remain an Old Maid by choice while noticing that Scarlett has spent the war effort remarrying for money and sucking up to the Yankees, all the while showing an unusual amount of affection for her brother Ashley. India also blames Scarlett for Frank Kennedy's death since if Scarlett hadn't ridden through Shantytown alone and been attacked, Frank wouldn't have been honor-bound to summon the Ku Klux Klan to avenge her as Scarlett's husband and get killed in turn.
      You'd Expect: India would privately tell Melanie her suspicions that Scarlett has been pining for Ashley, Melanie's husband. Or, at the least, gather some proof that an affair has happened.
      Instead: She starts gossiping behind Melanie and Scarlett's backs after Scarlett accepts Rhett Butler's marriage proposal, preparing to shun the pair of scalawags from polite Atlantic society. While Melanie is at home.
      The Result: Melanie quite aptly gives a What the Hell, Hero? to India about spreading idle gossip. She reminds India and everyone present that Scarlett nursed her through a difficult labor and got her out of Atlanta before Sherman's march when a less faithful woman would have let Melanie succumb to the shock and blood loss. Melanie also shames everyone by saying correctly that there is no proof that either Scarlett or Ashley has been unfaithful to her. When India tries to spin an innocent embrace between Scarlett and Ashley as something worse, Melanie loses it. She kicks India out of her house, fires her worker Archie, the other man who reported the hug, and tells Scarlett to pay no mind to busybodies. Melanie also correctly notes that India was willing to sell out her own brother for the sake of her grudge, something that India is forced to admit.
    • Rhett's and Scarlett's daughter, Bonnie, is showing to be a very promising horse rider. Rhett has brought her a Shetland pony, and soon girl and pony are learning how to ride sidesaddle and jump over bars... but now Bonnie wants to take more risks.
      You'd Expect: That Rhett would put his foot down and refuse to raise the bar to one and a half feet when she asks him to. Bonnie is no older than five and, despite her talent, she's still an inexperienced little girl; besides she's riding a pony, which has fat and short legs and is likely to trip.
      Instead: Rhett gives in and only warns Bonnie to not come crying if she falls. The deal finishes with the pony tripping over the bars... and Bonnie not just falling, but breaking her neck and dying.
  • Goosebumps:
    • The Ghost Next Door:
      • Danny and his two friends, Alan and Fred, are threatened with a shotgun by the local Jerkass postman, Mr. Chesney.
        You'd Expect: Danny and co. would call the police A.S.A.P..
        Instead: They decide to get revenge on Chesney by breaking into his home and setting the place on fire.
        The Result: Alan and Fred escape, but Danny is trapped by the flames and has to be rescued by Hannah.
      • Hannah has been stalked by a mysterious shadow creature since Danny came to her neighbourhood. On top of that, she finds out that she, and not Danny, is the titular "Ghost Next Door" who died along with her family in a fire she didn't put out thoroughly, and is understandbly shaken by this. When she tries to rescue Danny from his predicament described above, the Shadow reappears and is revealed to be Danny's evil future-self, who wants to stop Hannah from rescuing Danny because he needs him to die so he can be incarnated in reality.
        You'd Expect: The Shadow would have come prepared for the possibility that Hannah would take advantage of her recently-discovered abilities as a ghost to rescue Danny.
        Instead: He's way too sure of his victory for his own good, and didn't think of this.
        The Result: Hannah bursts right through him and rescues Danny, and the Shadow dies anti-climactically.
    • In Egg Monsters from Mars, Dana shows the first egg creature to Dr. Gray, he's fascinated but decides Dana needs to be tested for signs of alien infection and to keep knowledge of the aliens secret.
      You'd Expect: That Gray would contact Dana's parents about the situation and just keep him around for a few minutes while he takes a blood/DNA sample, then swear the family into confidentiality. Dana's folks are scientists as well, so they'd probably understand, and it's not like anyone would believe the Johnsons about Martians that resemble scrambled eggs.
      Instead: He kidnaps the boy, locking him in a walk-in freezer where he nearly dies of hypothermia overnight, seemingly not realizing at all Dana's disappearance wouldn't go unnoticed. Then he tries to outright murder the boy for the aliens that he locked in with him covering him from the cold, and gets killed himself by the creatures. Dana tells all about his kidnapping when he escapes, and it's eventually revealed his time with the Egg monsters in the freezer did indeed affect him, as he lays a new egg on the neighbour's front lawn.
    • In Say Cheese and Die — Again!, Greg wants to prove his story about the evil camera is true and has brought it to school.
      You'd Expect: Greg to take a picture of an inanimate object so he could get his proof without hurting anyone.
      Instead: He just shows Mr. Saur the camera and the photo of Jon with the nail through his foot.
      The Result: Mr. Saur believes the photo is a trick photo and doesn't believe Greg.
  • Hannah Swensen: Hannah can make some pretty boneheaded decisions when it comes to her investigations. Case in point for Gingerbread Cookie Murder:
    • Hannah is closing in on the killer, believing it to be Ernie's friend Gary Jenkins because the numbers on Ernie's winning lottery ticket match Gary's phone number all except for the last number, 37. She decides to ask Delores, who is dating Gary if it's important, but finds out she's currently at Gary's place.
      You'd Expect: Hannah to wait for Delores to come home and ask her, so as not to tip Gary off.
      Instead: She goes over to Gary's house to ask her. While she finds out the number 37 is connected to Gary after all, Gary overhears this and pulls a gun on her and Delores. Gary, however, is not immune to this trope, because...
      You'd Then Expect: Gary to either shoot them where they stand or take them somewhere quiet to kill them.
      Instead: Gary accepts Delores' request for one last drink of champagne. This allows Delores to knock him out with the bottle.
      To Be Fair: Gary was partially drunk at the time. What Hannah was thinking is another matter...
  • Harriet the Spy:
    • Harriet is a young spy who writes a lot of not so nice stuff in a notebook. One day, she's playing tag...
      You'd Expect: Harriet would set her stuff down by the bench and put it in a bag where it wouldn't be seen.
      Instead: She plays while carrying her bag, and loses her stuff. Her notebook then falls into the hands of her classmates, who are not happy with all the stuff written about them.
      Hurt by the notes, they all form a spy catchers club, bent on making Harriet's life miserable. Harriet deals with the situation by
      You'd Expect: a.) Apologizing to everyone for the stuff and asking for forgiveness. b.) Telling her parents or teacher about what they're doing to her.
      Instead: Getting back at them with pretty nasty pranks, which, predictably, has bad results.
    • In the book, it's even worse. The game involves knocking other people's books out of their arms.
      You'd Expect: Harriet would think twice about playing this, or would otherwise protect her all-important notebook in some way, given that her behavior throughout the story indicates that it's her fucking Soul Jar for God's sake, especially since her nanny's departure.
      Instead: She lets her notebook get away from her and doesn't even miss it until they're through playing and have run a good distance away from where she dropped it.
    • Afterward, Harriet gets bullied by her classmates. Her parents get wind of it when Harriet tries faking sick for several days. They are blindsided by how to help her, since they left that to Ole Golly, who left to get married.
      You'd Expect: Her parents would do what they eventually do, and call on Ole Golly for help. This is an emergency.
      Instead: They tell Harriet to think of how hurt her classmates must be feeling, and missing the signs that she's being bullied. When she refuses to do schoolwork, they confiscate her notebook, the absolute Rage Breaking Point for her.
      The Result: Harriet starts Extreme Mêlée Revenge that gets her suspended from school: she tells Rachel that Rachel's father doesn't love her anymore, sneaks a frog into Marion's desk, and cuts out a huge chunk of Laura's hair. To cap it all off, she nearly makes the cook quit by ruining the poor woman's cake. A child psychologist has to tell Mr. and Mrs. Welsh what's obvious to the reader: Harriet needs a writing outlet that won't get her bullied, and that Ole Golly's advice will stay with her.
    • In the book, Ole Golly is debating leaving to get married, but the choice is taken from her when she's fired after some frankly irresponsible behavior on her part. Namely, Ole Golly decided that it was time that Harriet met Mr. Waldenstein, and offered to take Harriet to have an egg cream with him, so that it would be easier for the eventual separation of Harriet losing her nanny and the person who understands her the most. She just made one mistake: "Catherine" didn't tell Mr. or Mrs. Welch that she was taking Harriet out past her bedtime or even left a note. The Welches come back and are tearing up the place, looking for Harriet and Catherine. Mrs. Welch goes Mama Bear and tells off Ole Golly for her irresponsible behavior, firing her on the spot before tucking in a peeved and crying Harriet, and then stopping to hear Ole Golly's side of the story.
      You'd Expect: Harriet's parents to explain why, when Ole Golly's job involved making sure Harriet was in bed on time, not letting her go out on a school night, much less taking her out, and not letting her meet random strangers the parents haven't met, they couldn't trust her anymore after she broke all that trust at once while they were at a dinner party. (The stranger was Ole Golly's fiance, but he hadn't met Harriet's parents.) Especially since Harriet had had a lot of fun going out with Ole Golly and her fiancee, and was too young to see the adult fear involved in the parents coming home early and finding the house empty.
      Instead: They never explain anything to Harriet about just how bad the situation looked to them.
      The Result: Harriet doesn't trust them just when she needs help the most.
  • The Hate U Give:
    • Hailey is friends with Starr, one of two black kids at her private school. She's a rich white girl who is already in hot water with Starr for making a watermelon joke. Then Hailey finds out that Starr was the sole witness to a cop shooting a teenage boy, and that the boy happened to be Starr's childhood friend.
      You'd Expect: Hailey would offer a sympathetic "there there" and leave Starr alone about an obviously traumatic event.
      Instead: Hailey takes offense at how Starr didn't mention this fact, and at how Starr is angry at the police officer for killing Khalil. She then says that Khalil would have died young anyway.
      The Result: Starr, having already received a tongue lashing for not speaking up about Khalil, delivers a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Hailey.
  • Heralds of Valdemar: In Winds of Fate, Princess Elspeth has gone on a mission to recruit a mage willing, able, and suited to teach any potential mages of her land - including herself. She finds out on the way that the Companions have bent all of their formidable abilities toward getting her to just such a mage, and have been doing so for quite some time.
    You'd Expect that, being a princess and Herald, trained in diplomacy and statecraft and the exigencies thereof, she'd go along. With substantial grumbling, most likely, and most certainly after giving Gwena a well-deserved and truly epic dressing-down but she does understand these things.
    Instead, upon discovering she's been (in her words) "led about like some stupid sheep," she immediately decides to head for another city entirely, where she knows nobody, to search among a people she knows nothing about, for representatives of another people that she knows almost nothing about, expect that centuries before they trained one Valdemaran mage, without even knowing the language of either group. Granted, she realizes later that this is an incredibly stupid idea, but she sticks with her moronic plan.
  • His Dark Materials:
    • Angels are ruled by someone who says he's a god that created all life, including them.
      You'd Expect: That they would ask for proof of this at some point during the countless millennia they did his bidding.
      Instead: None of them does, ever, and they're shocked when the guy is revealed to be an opportunistic liar.
  • Holes:
    • In the past in the town of Green Lake, a schoolteacher named Kate Barlow is the darling of the town's men, especially its local tycoon Trout Walker. Kate pays the local onion man Sam to repair the schoolhouse, so that it goes from a leaky, creaky shack to the newest building in town. Trout, already chagrined by Kate turning him down for a date due to the fact that she's his teacher in the night classes, finds out from the local gossip that Sam and Kate kissed in the schoolhouse, when they thought they were alone. In the film adaptation, he actually witnesses it.
      You'd Expect: That Trout would lead the angry mob to exile Kate and Sam but leave the school alone. The schoolhouse belongs to the town, not to Kate. Not to mention that it's valuable for the students. Also, Kate doesn't want to date anyone in town because she is a teacher, not a lover or a toy for the men.
      Instead: Trout lead the mob to destroy the schoolhouse, accusing Kate of corrupting the students. Then he gets in his motorboat to chase her down and Sam, since Kate found out from the sheriff that it's against the law — Jim Crow era— for a white woman to kiss a black guy and that he's preparing to hang Sam unless Kate kisses the sheriff. Trout manages to shoot Sam and his donkey, Mary Lou, who was left behind in the chase. Kate was then rescued from the remains of Sam's boat against her will.
      The Result: The schoolhouse is one of the many losses that Green Lake suffers; one of its former students, Linda Miller, finds reason to marry Trout for his money. Kate goes from a sweet schoolteacher to a raging bandit, who starts shooting men after robbing them and kissing them. Her first victim is the sheriff, whom demanded a kiss in exchange for Sam's life. The only reason that she doesn't hunt down Trout and kill him is because she wants him to live in misery, and unleashes a Dying Curse on him when he and his wife Linda catch up to her and interrogate her about her robbery treasures. In addition, rain stops falling in Green Lake, turning it into a barren wasteland rather than the paradise it once was. To make money off it, Trout's great-granddaughter Ms. Walker creates a prison labor camp and then later has to sell it after the Attorney General and Stanley's new lawyer find evidence of child abuse, closing down the camp.
    • In the present day, Stanley Yelnats IV is arrested for allegedly stealing a pair of shoes from a charity. (The shoes were part of a display to raise money.) His family is poor, due to his dad being a failed inventor. There's also the streak of bad luck that has run in the family ever since his great-great-grandfather accidentally broke a promise to an old woman -she'd given him a pig in exchange for the future fulfillment of that promise. They can't afford a lawyer for his trial.
      You'd Expect: That his family would learn that they could get a free lawyer, if they can't afford one, and they can ask for a new lawyer if the one they get sucks. It might not have done much good, given how the justice system in the United States is weighed against the poor and prisons are run by for-profit corporations, but it might have made a speck of a difference since Stanley is white, and he actually had an alibi.
      Instead: The lawyer they get is the greenest guy in the defense attorney's office, and badly disorganized to boot. Stanley tells the truth, as his mother said, but phrases it in a way that sounds really bad: "The shoes fell from the sky, like a gift from God". While it's what happened, it sounds utterly incredulous and ridiculous. Especially since we learn that they fell from the highway above the sidewalk Stanley was strolling.
      The Result: No one believes him, especially the baseball player who donated his shoes to that charity. The judge, implied to be in Ms. Walker's payroll, takes the opportunity to give Stanley the option of either jail or Camp Green Lake, where a kid was sent to the hospital due to stepping on a rattlesnake. Stanley chooses camp, obviously, because it sounds better than going to jail. He has no idea that Camp Green Lake may as well be a prison, with how the kids are trapped by the desert and are subject to arbitrary authority figures. Much later on, when his family finally gets their luck turned around and hires a lawyer from the patent money, she quickly finds his alibi and manages to prove Stanley's innocence.
      Addition: Stanley ultimately feels grateful for feeling blamed and sent to Camp Green Lake because it means that he runs into Hector Zeroni, and saving Hector from the desert ends up breaking the family curse. It also means that he and Hector become lifelong friends due to them working together and saving each other.
  • In How to Lose Your Classroom Pet, Willimena has been tasked with keeping her class pet hamster at home.
    You'd Expect: Willimena to keep an eye on the hamster to make sure he tries nothing funny and his cage is secure.
    Instead: She puts down the cage and forgets about it, allowing the hamster to escape.
  • Hush, Hush:
    • Vee goes to break into the school with Jules and Elliot, despite the fact that Elliot physically threatened Nora earlier in the novel. She also finds out that a mysterious stalker is frightening Nora so her brilliant plan is not to talk to an employee at the store they're in for help, but to disguise herself as Nora, lead the stalker off into a graveyard, have Nora follow after, and between them confront a potentially armed and dangerous person.
      Unsurprisingly: This leads to Vee being concussed and having her arm broken. And immediately after she gets out of the hospital, she decides that they ought to go poking around and spy on the guy who they think attacked her to begin with.
    • Nora is stranded in Portland and accepts a ride home from Patch, even though he chased her through a parking lot and scared her not so long ago. She then just stands there while he arranges for them to spend the night in a motel together, and apparently thinks she can hold off Patch (who has repeatedly proven to be stronger than her) if he tries anything. She later is point-blank told by Patch that he has planned to murder her and knows that he can influence her thoughts and feelings and still thinks it's a good idea to date him!!!
  • Inheritance Cycle:
    • In the back story, the rebellious Varden and their allies, the elves, posses 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 use 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. The plot of the trilogy kicks off when she's ambushed by the Dragon, and forced to... teleport the egg away. (Right into the reach of Eragon.)
    • And then, there is the rather questionable fact that the Varden decide to start their rebellion at the worst time point possible. Most of the rebellion's problems in the first place, as revealed in the second and third book, stem from the fact that they decide to become official right when most of their most honorable leaders bit the dust.
      You'd expect: For several years before the series' start, the Varden, and their allies, Dwarves and Elves alike, are actually pretty well-organized, with respected leaders (Ajihad, Hrothgar and Islanzadi). The Elves themselves show in the third book they are all by themselves strong enough to storm some of the empire's largest and best-deffended cities (let alone that they actually still had a Dragon rider among their ranks). With the Varden and Dwarves' help, it should've been ridiculously easy. It'd be a bit of a mess, but that's inevitable for war.
      Instead: They decide to wait for some decades, and in the meantime, a) Galbatorix empowers himself to a ridiculous degree, b) the same guy gets plenty of time to work on an Ancient Conspiracy, c) Murtagh is found and becomes Galbatorix' The Dragon, d) both Ajihad and Hrothgar die quite quickly, and the succession crisis to the latter is particularly egregious. The Varden decide to become right then active when Galbatorix has reached the peak of his power, and Eragon is still not ready. Instead of riding straight to the forest to undergo Training from Hell, he goes there outright relaxed by foot and spends most of his time there chasing after Arya.
    • Hell, the story itself is arguably the result of the old Dragon Riders being Too Dumb to Live. Let's look at why Galbatorix turned "evil" in the first place. Galbatorix returns as the lone survivor, with his friends and dragon all killed horribly, from a failed raid on an Urgal settlement. He asks the ruling council of the Riders for a new dragon.
      You'd Expect: The Council to just give him a new egg, or at least give the traumatized kid (whom they have already recognized as a highly-talented, intelligent prodigy) some much-needed mental therapy and help getting past his grief.
      Instead: They deny him help of any kind, and instead leave Galbatorix to his own devices, as he slides into madness and decides to take his revenge on the Riders.
  • Atticus from the Iron Druid Chronicles is warned repeatedly by reliable sources including Jesus that taking part in a revenge crew against the Norse God Thor is a very bad idea and will have dire consequences. Atticus has spent most of his life avoiding fights whenever he can and is given an "out" that allows him to preserve his honor while avoding said situation. He also knows that prophecies can be true and how dangerous some of these magical beings can be.
    You'd expect: Atticus to least give some thought as to why everyone is saying this is a bad idea besides the risk of his own life.
    Instead: He joins the battle and thanks to his aid many of the major Aesir including Thor are killed, Loki escapes and now is free of the prophecies allowing him to team up with his daughter and legions of undead and fire giants to start Ragnarok and destroy the world.
  • James and the Giant Peach: In Chapter 15, Abusive Aunts Spiker and Sponge have decided that James has been outside too long, ignorant that he has crawled inside the magic giant peach. With the help of James' new insect friends, the peach breaks free from its stem and is rolling towards the aunts, much to their fear.
    You'd Expect: Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge to jump out of the way and let the peach roll past them.
    Instead: They panic and try to outrun the peach.
    As A Result: They eventually trip over each other, and the giant peach rolls over them and kills them. And There Was Much Rejoicing!
  • Jane Eyre: Mr. Brocklehurst supervises Lowood Institute, a girls' boarding school. He is established as a fanatical Christian, and subjects the girls to harsh living conditions in the name of teaching them humility.
    You'd Expect: If Brocklehurst is going to force the Lowood girls to take a "pride-crushing course", then he would at least have the decency to make sure the school's living conditions are more than adequate enough to be comfortable.
    Instead: Nope. He expects the girls to wear clothing that is too thin for the snowy winters, endure lack of insulation, and eat spoiled and even rotten food.
    As A Result: The poor girls are left freezing and starving, and Brocklehurst's mismanagement ends up being such a colossal Epic Fail that he contributes to a typhoid fever outbreak that kills half the student body, including Helen Burns, one of the few girls to treat Jane kindly.
    Extra Points: He spoils his own children who attend Lowood, dressing them in extravagant clothing.
    Fortunately: Following the outbreak, a public investigation exposes Brocklehurst's mismanagement, and he is removed and his reputation eternally ruined.
  • Journey to the West:
    • The Divine Emperor has three in rapid succession, just in the introduction. First, when Sun Wukong is born of a stone, his body shines with power so brightly it can be seen throughout all creation and outshines even the sun itself.
      You'd Expect: The Emperor dispatches some servants to check out whatever could be giving off that kind of power.
      Instead: The Emperor decides it's nothing. For bonus points, the book manages to describe this as "infinite wisdom" with a straight face. To give you some idea how ludicrous that is: They made an anime of Journey to the West in which they tremendously dialed down Sun Wukong's power level and removed his massive stack of secondary abilities. Sun Wukong was renamed Son Goku and the show is called Dragon Ball Z. In another adaption, Saiyuki, his powers are dialed even lower and he's still trashing everything in sight.
    • Later, Sun Wukong has proven troublesome and upsets several gods with his awesome combat skills, including crossing out his name (and those of his friends) from the book of death after beating up all the death gods so that he and his friends can never die. Notably, these events have proven that Sun Wukong is extremely loyal to his friends as he was already fairly immortal and went into hell just to save his friends. The Emperor decides to deal with this irritant.
      You'd Expect: The Emperor makes the immortal invincible fighting machine his personal enforcer or bodyguard, thereby ensuring that nothing can touch him and his rule will last forever.
      Instead: He has Sun Wukong take care of his horse. Surprisingly, Sun Wukong does a good job at it until some lesser gods make fun of him for being a servant and he leaves in a huff over the insult. Compounding his mistake, the Emperor sends the army to punish Sun Wukong for leaving, and nearly loses the entire thing.
    • Later Still, Sun Wukong has defeated the entire army of heaven and proven himself almost completely unstoppable. In exchange for a meaningless title, Sun Wukong settles down and throws endless parties to amuse himself and no longer troubles heaven.
      You'd Expect: The Emperor decides to leave well enough alone after almost losing his army to a single monkey.
      Instead: The Emperor is offended that the Monkey is having too much fun, so he sets the Monkey King to managing his peach orchard. Even knowing that the Monkey eats only fruit and has relatively little impulse control. The inevitable swiftly follows.
      Even Worse: The Emperor throws a peach celebration and makes sure not to invite Sun Wukong in order to put him in his place. The same Sun Wukong who has been perfectly willing to work for nothing but parties.
      Unsurprisingly: This nearly leads to Sun Wukong overthrowing the entire celestial hierarchy and killing all the gods. It's no wonder many researchers think the entire book is a Stealth Parody mocking the emperor.
  • In The Lake House, Ethan Kane's attempt at killing Max is... odd, to say the least.
    You'd expect: He'd just suffocate her, considering that he has just demonstrated that he is strong enough to do this.
    Instead: He pushes her out of a window, and is dragged out with her. She flies to safety, while he falls to his demise.
  • Little House on the Prairie:
    • Miss Eliza Jane Wilder has arrived in town to teach Laura's class. Laura's father is now on the school board, while Nellie Olsen has returned with her family fortunes ruined. The girls predictably squabble, with Laura making a remark about how Pa is in a better position than Mr. Olsen is. Nellie goes to tattle to Miss Wilder, but makes it seem like Laura was bragging.
      You'd Expect: Miss Wilder to tell Pa this if she wants Laura to be disciplined. Or summon Laura and get her side of the story, which is the more sensible course of action. Kids and even adults are often biased and believing in their self-righteousness.
      Instead: She takes out her fury on Nellie's behalf on Carrie, Laura's little sister. On one day she makes an ill Carrie rock a school desk, and Laura when she volunteers to rock the desk rocks it so loud that no one can hear the lesson. Miss Wilder then sends the girls home for the day.
      Predictably: The boys in the class are furious on Laura's behalf, having witnessed this injustice firsthand. They wage a campaign to sabotage Miss Wilder's teaching, from playing pranks in class to reciting a nasty poem about her. One that Laura wrote, but she didn't mean for it to get shared around. The school board walks in on the chaos, and Miss Wilder belatedly tells them what Laura supposedly said. Laura isn't even punished; she's given a mild lecture on respecting her teacher and being careful what she says to people who dislike her. Miss Wilder leaves and her brother Almanzo starts courting Laura in earnest.
    • Shortly after, Almanzo hears the whole story and starts courting Laura, much to her bemusement. After a few years of him ferrying her to teacher jobs and back, he proposes to her. Eliza Jane finds out and is actually happy for her brother. Laura and Almanzo want to have a small wedding, without the church, because neither he or Laura's family can afford a big one.
      You'd Expect: Eliza Jane would respect Almanzo's wishes on this front. Money is tight on the frontier.
      Instead: She convinces her mother it would be a great idea to take the train west and force Almanzo to have a giant church wedding, ignoring Almanzo's protests.
      The Result: Almanzo asks Laura to do a somewhat earlier ceremony because Eliza Jane won't listen, with only their friends as witnesses.
  • Little Women: in "Jo Meets Apollyon," Amy made the mistake of burning Jo's treasured manuscript when her sister refused to take her on an outing, while promising to take her another time. Everyone is upset with Amy over this and Jo refuses to forgive, understandably because she had only one copy and no backups. The next day, Jo goes to cool her temper by skating with the family friend Laurie. Amy starts whining that Jo promised to take her skating before the spring thaw.
    You'd Expect: Their sister Meg would tell Amy to wait out Jo's temper and not skate as a form of penance. What Amy did was unforgivable, especially since it's not like she can replace the manuscript or is even really sorry for what she did.
    Instead: Meg tells Amy to tag along and maybe Jo will be more forgiving after having a good time with Laurie.
    The Result: In a fit of spite Jo skates ahead, angry that an unrepentant Amy is trying to catch up to her, and not warn her that the ice is thawing in the middle of the lake, which Laurie just tested. Laser-Guided Karma ensues when Amy skates on a too-thin patch of ice and nearly drowns, if not for Laurie's quick-thinking. Jo is horrified and apologetic, while Amy is bedridden for a few days and most definitely cannot go on outings for a while.
  • Looking for Alaska: Dean Starnes is strict but a Reasonable Authority Figure, as shown by his giving Miles a few demerits for smoking rather than expelling or suspending the kid.
    You'd Expect: If anything, the logical thing the Colonel could do is tell the Dean about the Weekday Warriors nearly drowning Miles, because Miles didn't get Mayra expelled.
    Instead: Nobody wants to be the snitch, so an Escalating Prank War begins, and things culminate with the incident with the dye in the shampoo. While no one wants to be the snitch, as it was snitching in the first place that started the prank war, it might have stopped before things came to a head.
  • Lords of the Underworld: Themis learns that her husband cheated on her with Dysnomia, and furiously confronts the latter. Dysnomia admits this is true.
    You'd expect: That Dysnomia would try to placate Themis, who is very powerful and very angry. Apologizing would be a good start.
    Instead: She declares unrepentantly that it is her nature to sleep with married men. Themis promptly reminds Dysnomia that it's her nature to punish sinners. And since Themis is so pissed off, she also punishes Dysnomia's innocent daughter.
  • Lord of the Flies: Simon discovers that the beast, who has the rest of the boys on edge, is the decomposing body of an ejected fighter pilot. He rushes off to warn everybody else on the island, but the boys are in the middle of a ritual dance with storm a sweeping through.
    You'd Expect: Simon to wait until the storm passes and the boys have finished their dance before telling the truth about the beast.
    Instead: He runs up to the boys. Panicked and unable to see due to the foul weather, they mistake Simon for the beast and spear him to death.
  • Lyle And The Birthday Party by Bernard Waber: Lyle, the titular anthropomorphic crocodile who lives with Mr. and Mrs. Joseph F. Primm and their son Joshua on East 88th Street, is jealous of Joshua's birthday party. As a result, he becomes out of sorts, even going so far as to "accidentally" break the toy drum that Joshua received as one of his birthday presents. The next day, he feels "a full measure of shame" for this. Mr. and Mrs. Primm notice that Lyle doesn't seem to be his usual friendly self. Mrs. Primm is worried that their reptilian friend might be sick, and she considers calling a doctor. Obviously, the Primms' family doctor wouldn't be much help with crocodiles, so she calls the Zoo to ask their advice. They tell her that Dr. Lewis James, on East 65th Street, is very good with said creatures. Then, after Mrs. Primm hangs up, she can't remember if they told her "Dr. Lewis James" or "Dr. James Lewis" (who is a pediatrician, and also works on East 65th Street). She settles on the latter, and calls the operator. When she is connected with Dr. James Lewis, she clearly says to him, "My crocodile isn't feeling well today".
    You'd Expect: Dr. Lewis, after hearing that Lyle is a crocodile, would tell her that he takes care only of children, and that she may have him confused with another doctor (as indeed she does; the narrator mentions that although Dr. Lewis is an excellent doctor for children, he knows precious little about the condition of crocodiles). Dr. Lewis and Mrs. Primm would then hang up, and she'd try Dr. Lewis James.
    Instead: Despite being sure that he's heard the word "crocodile", Dr. Lewis is "accustomed to excited callers", and asks Mrs. Primm who she said wasn't feeling well. Mrs. Primm responds, "Lyle".
    You'd Then Expect: Dr. Lewis would understand that Mrs. Primm's crocodile's name is Lyle.
    Instead: Dr. Lewis believes that Lyle is not a crocodile, but rather her son. She redundantly mentions that Lyle is green all over (though, of course, he always is). Dr. Lewis interprets this as an emergency, and agrees to have an ambulance come to fetch him immediately. When the ambulance arrives, the attendants see him.
    You'd Then Expect: They'd realize that Lyle really is a crocodile.
    Instead: They believe that he is human, and has a bad case of what they call "crocodilitis" (which they obviously made up); therefore, they take him to see Dr. Lewis. Also, if crocodilitis were real, it would be an inflammation that occurs only in crocodilians (crocodiles, alligators, gavials and caimans). Therefore, if Lyle had it, it would be proof that he's a real crocodile.
    Fortunately: Dr. Lewis decides to take care of Lyle anyhow. During his stay at the hospital, Lyle helps the other patients as needed, and performs tricks for them. This makes him feel better, and he completely forgets about being jealous of Joshua's birthday party. Dr. Lewis even declares that Lyle is "the best medicine our patients have had in a good long time". On their way home, Mrs. Primm informs Lyle that this day is his third anniversary (in other words, three years since they found him), which means that they are going to have a party for him, as well.

    Literature M-R 

  • Seen in-universe in Malevil. Armand attempts to blackmail Emmanuel over their bartering. Emmanuel insists that his new horses come with their saddles, Armand knows his boss Fulbert would never recognize the true value of the saddles, and demands a bribe to keep quiet.
    You'd Expect - He'd demand something useful to increase his personal power or odds of survival After the End. Most tools, weapons, and other commodities are gone and can't be replaced with the supplies on hand. Even food hasn't been proven to be a renewable resource at this point, scant months after nuclear war.
    Instead - He demands Emmanuel's gold signet ring. Emmanuel complies and later has a chuckle at his idiocy; in a survivalist society were food and basic supplies are a matter of life and death, jewelry is completely worthless.
  • Malory Towers: In the last book, a new girl arrives from a school renowned for sports, which has unfortunately burned down. This new girl, Amanda, is likely to go to the Olympic Games, competing in swimming. Malory Towers, while good, doesn't have amazing facilities for sports the way Amanda's old school did, and Amanda decides that maybe swimming in the sea would be a better idea. However, she's repeatedly warned that it isn't a good idea, because not only is there a current, there's also some nasty rocks.
    You'd Expect: Amanda would do the smart thing and stay away from the sea.
    Instead: She decides to go swimming in the sea, ignoring all warnings, and gets caught in the current. June has to get the boat to rescue her, and Amanda gets injured so badly that it's likely that her career is over.
  • Marcus Didius Falco: Petro, a vigilis (policeman), is also a serial philanderer who always ends up returning to his wife and children. However, he starts an affair with Balbina Milvia, a married woman who is also the daughter of a (dead) crime lord. His wife gets very angry, and Milvia's husband (who is also an aspiring criminal), starts to take a rather keen interest in Petro. Falco (his best friend), Rubella (his boss), and several of his colleagues tell Petro that backing off is probably the best thing to do here.
    You'd Expect: Petro would do the rational thing — leave Milvia alone, and try to be a better husband.
    Instead: He decides that because everyone is telling him to do it, he won't.
    The Result: Milvia's husband sends goons who nearly kill him, and his wife leaves him and takes the children.
  • Matilda by Roald Dahl (1988): Mr. Wormwood, the eponymous character's father, has a job as a car reseller. His approach to repairing them before sale is so cheap that the cars are less "repaired" and more "able to feign travelling for a few miles before breaking down again".
    You'd Expect: Mr. Wormwood to realize that this kind of business "plan" will never work long-term. He may make a lot of money currently, but it would not take much effort for one of his customers to realize that he handles cars terribly, and in the end, enough of his customers will catch on that his reputation will be irrepairably tarnished.
    Instead: Mr. Wormwood continues his modus operandi without realizing the consequences of his actions in time for the police to discover that he is engaging in illegal activity, forcing him and his family to flee the country — save Matilda herself, who remains with her teacher whom she has developed a close friendship with. The Wormwoods lost their daughter all because of the father's stupidity!
  • The Maze Runner: The Glader policy of absolute secrecy and disdain towards greenies leaves a lot to be desired. For example, when Thomas has just been dumped in the glade and is greeted by its inhabitants.
    You'd Expect: This being a song and dance all these characters are well acquainted with, Thomas would be sat down (by force if necessary), then told in detail the exact conditions of his new life. It is in their absolute best interests to make sure every new person that pops up becomes a contributing member of their society after all.
    Instead: The characters outright refuse to tell Thomas anything until "the tour" and respond with disproportionate hostility to his questioning. There is no benefit to anyone to just leave new arrivals in the dark, especially when everyone is ostensibly working towards the same goal of leaving the maze. Instead of every member of the Glade using their noggin to solve the problem, only a select few are entrusted to actually even attempt to solve the maze while everyone else twiddles their thumbs in ignorance. The real kicker is that unlike the movie, this is never really brought up after Thomas becomes a runner. No explanation is given to why the Gladers ostracize newcomers outside of not wanting to hear a thousand questions.
  • In The Meanest Doll in the World, Annabelle is in a closet when a mean doll called Mimi comes up to her. Mimi tells Annabelle that her friend, Tiffany, told her that she is tired of hanging out with someone who's scared of spiders, and is going on a picnic without her.
    You'd Expect: Since this is all coming from a doll who's been nothing but antagonistic toward her and Tiffany, Annabelle would realize at once that Mimi is bullshitting her and tell her to get lost. At the very least, you'd think she'd question why Tiffany would want to even be near Mimi, let alone talk to her.
    Instead: She falls for what Mimi tells her and yells at Tiffany. The two get into a fight and do not talk to each other for a while. When they eventually reconcile, Tiffany points out that Mimi must have heard them talk when they were in a backpack.
  • Memories of Ice: The heroes have joined an army which includes Kallor, an immortal mass-murderer with an infamous track record. None of them like him, for obvious reasons.
    You'd Expect: The heroes to either try and get rid of Kallor or put up with his presence.
    Instead: They leave him where he is, but belittle and mock him constantly, ignoring any advice he offers, and treating him like garbage.
    Result: Kallor executes a vicious backstab that leaves multiple people—including The Hero—dead, then signs on with the series' Big Bad.
  • The Mortal Instruments:
    • The main character, Clary, witnesses a boy her own age tied up (with piano wire) and questioned by people talking about demons and accusing the boy of being one, going so far as to threaten to kill him with a knife.
      You'd Expect: Her to leave immediately and look for a bouncer.
      Instead: She stands and watches, and then steps in when one of these obviously deranged people brings out a knife.
    • Soon after, the tied up boy attacks one of his captors, who kills him, and the boy's body basically implodes into nothing. His kidnappers and murderers continue to say he was a demon, and when her friend and a bouncer arrive she is apparently the only one who can see them.
      You'd Expect: Clary to seriously question whether or not she was sober at this point, considering she was in a club, and these people keep talking about magic and demons, and you know, she's the only one who can see them.
      Instead: She seems to accept what these murderers are telling her, and seems to think her doubts are wishful thinking.
    • After leaving the club, Clary's Childhood Friend Simon asks her if she's alright. He obviously knows something is wrong with her, and keeps asking her if she has something she wants to tell him.
      You'd Expect: Clary to confide in Simon, whom she's known for ten years, since what just happened was so traumatic.
      Instead: She doesn't tell him anything at all, her reasoning seeming to stem from how the MURDERER Jace talked to her.
    • The next evening, when talking to Simon in a resturaunt, Clary spots Jace again when he interrupts her conversation with a snort. He's armed, she's already seen him kill someone, and Simon is obviously trying to tell her something important. Jace, after interrupting her conversation, gets up and leaves.
      You'd Think: Clary would stay with Simon, perhaps very disturbed that her hallucination is appearing again, and maybe tell Simon what she just saw.
      Instead: She runs out after Jace. Jace, who she saw kill someone. Jace, who has a knife very like the one he killed someone on him at this very moment. Jace, who apparently only she can see. She runs after him outside. At night. "Terrified that he would disappear like a ghost." And she doesn't say a single word to Simon. She just up and leaves.
  • The Moving Finger: The killer has been clearly established to be the one writing the poison pen letters.
    You'd expect: People refrain from sending hate-mail.
    Instead Aimee just HAD to tell Elsie what a gold digger she was, assuming the killer would be blamed (ignoring among other things the fact that Elsie might not particularly care what the killer thinks of her).
    Unsurprisingly: She is arrested on suspicion of murder.
  • Mr. Men:
    • In Little Miss Trouble, the eponymous character tells Mr. Clever that Mr. Small calls him "Big Nose" behind his back.
      You'd Expect: Given the names of both characters for Mr. Clever to see though Little Miss Trouble's lie. If Mr. Clever ever meets Mr. Small after this encounter, he would see that Mr. Small has already been a victim of Little Miss Trouble's false rumors since Mr. Uppity gave him a black eye.
      Instead: The instant he sees Mr. Small, Mr. Clever doesn't give him a chance to explain and socks him in the other eye.
    • In Little Miss Wise, the title character has taken up a vow to stop saying no to everybody lest she risk losing friends. While out on of her walks, she encounters Mr. Mischief who's carrying a parcel of sneezing powder.
      You'd think: Again, given their names, she'd realize that accepting a gift from Mr. Mischief is the equivalent of giving a thief the keys to the house and say no.
      Instead: She says yes.
      As a result: She ends up getting covered in sneezing powder and spends most of the day sneezing.
      On the plus side though: According to the official website, after what happened she now knows better then to accept a gift from Mr. Mischief.
    • In Little Miss Princess And The Very Special Party, Little Miss Helpful is trying to organize a street party with Little Miss Princess as the special guest. Naturally while trying to organize the party, she ends up causing screw ups so she decides that she needs help herself.
      You'd expect: That she'd ask one of the nicer Mr.Men/Little Miss (E.G. Mr. Happy, Mr. Good, Little Miss Sunshine) to help.
      Instead: She asks Little Miss Naughty to help, who of course, has a nasty idea up her sleeve.
    • On the day of the party, Little Miss Naughty's scheme (Getting the Mr. Men and Little Miss to sit next to their opposites) is foiled by Little Miss Helpful when the latter makes them sit next to the person that they like the most.
      You'd expect: Now that her scheme has been foiled, Little Miss Naughty would hightail out of there. Surely, she could avoid punishment if she gets as far away as possible.
      Instead: She just stands there with a sad look on her face and Little Miss Helpful punishes her by making her scrub the plates.
    • In The Christmas Elf, it's said that as a result of her naughty behavior, Little Miss Naughty is on Santa's naughty list every year and never gets any presents.
      You'd expect: As the narration points out, Little Miss Naughty to eventually realize that being naughty won't get you rewarded and just do a 180 on her behavior.
      Instead: She still continues to act naughty and eventually comes up with a horrible plan to ruin Christmas by breaking Santa's sleigh, swapping around everyone's presents and attempt to get herself on the nice list.
      As a result: She ends up getting stuck turning the pages of the list for a whole year when she finds out that her name is very hard to find.
    • In Little Miss Inventor And The Robots, Little Miss Inventor decides to create a Bossybot (Which, if the name didn't tip you off is based on Little Miss Bossy) to keep things in Misterland in line.
      You'd expect: Given that much like with Mr. Clever and Little Miss Wise, Little Miss Inventor is supposed to be one of the smartest people in Misterland, she would program the Bossybot to only boss about people who genuinely misbehave.
      Instead: She doesn't think to do that and as a result, the Bossybot prevents Mr. Funny from telling jokes, Little Miss Hug from hugging people and Little Miss Giggles from giggling. Then to make matters worse, the Bossybot takes control over the other robots she built and causes them to spiral out of control.
      Fortunately: Little Miss Inventor realizes that she made a mistake and invents a stop button for the robots which shuts them all off.
    • In the tape-exclusive story When Little Miss Trouble Visited Little Miss Neat, Little Miss Trouble decides to take a staycation at Little Miss Neat's house due to feeling lonely.
      You'd Expect: Little Miss Trouble to not misbehave, after all Little Miss Neat was kind enough to let her come round to stay and perhaps she might let her stay at some point in the future.
      Instead: Her Chronic Villainy gets the better of her and she plays pranks on both Little Miss Neat and Mr. Fussy (Who had warned the former about what happen if she let Little Miss Trouble come round), tricks the two of them thinking they had messed up each other's houses, nearly driving a wedge between them.
      As a result: When Little Miss Neat and Mr. Fussy find out what she had done due to her laughing so loudly over their fight, Miss Neat kicks her out of the house and then when she returns back to her own house, she finds out that Mr. Fussy and Little Miss Neat had messed up her house as revenge.
  • Metro 2033 (the novel): Artyom and Daniel are navigating the extremely creepy, extremely ruined, and extremely monster-infested library when the latter notices his shoelaces are untied. Quite understandably, he decides this poses a danger to his mobility and stops to rectify the problem.
    You'd Expect: Artyom would cover his partner and watch for impending danger.
    Instead: Artyom leaves Daniel to his shoelaces and wanders off alone amidst the bookcases.
    Result: One of them gets killed by a monster. (Hint: It's not the protagonist.)
  • Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle:
    • Hubert Prentiss never cleans his room. There are toys and piles of dirty laundry everywhere, and he loathes putting them away neatly. It exasperated his mother, who is a homemaker.
      You'd Expect: She would let him face the consequences of his untidiness and not clean up his messes, literally.
      Instead: She tidies up to the best of her ability.
      The Result: Hubert doesn't learn to be neater. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has to point out the obvious solution: let Hubert see the consequences of a big mess. Lampshaded when the mother herself wonders why she didn't think of it. Only then does he tidy up when his piles of toys trap him in his room, and he nearly misses the circus.
    • "The Crybaby Cure" Melody Foxglove has been given a tonic that makes sure she cries a pool of tears every time a little thing upsets her. She gets it out of her system when her mother makes it cry in the kitchen sink after dinner so as not to flood the house, pointing out logically that when she's ready to stop, she'll feel better. Sure enough, Melody does. The kids at school the next day find out about it. They note that Melody is actually calmer than usual.
      You'd Expect: Given the potential waterworks, they would keep their distance. Most of the kids know about Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and like her.
      Instead: What do they do? Tease Melody again to the point of tears. This leads to the playground getting flooded for everyone, and Melody is willing to drown because she is that sad and not budging from the spot. The illustrations show her head barely above the saltwater. It takes someone finding a kitten as a present for Melody to stop.
    • "The Bully": Nicholas Semicolon is revealed to be a violent bully. His mother finds out the hard way when another parent calls in a rage because Nicholas used his new shoes to injure a boy's leg. Apparently he kicked the boy in the shin. Nicholas comes home a few hours later, pleased as punch with himself. He proceeds to steal a girl's apple and then toss it at her when Mrs. Semicolon orders him to return it, and his Ordered Apology is very sarcastic. The kid has an attitude and violent streak that he certainly didn't pick up at home.
      You'd Expect: Mrs. Semicolon would ground Nicholas and not allow him to leave the house since scolding him is ineffective. Making him apologize is shown not to instill a sense of remorse in him. If she has to run errands? Better he stays in one space and pays the consequences.
      Instead: She takes him grocery shopping, reasoning that it's better to keep him with her rather than let him stay at home.
      The Result: Nicholas still doesn't get the memo. He breaks another boy's carton of eggs and gives a fake apology. Despite that, he still doesn't learn when his mother makes him switch the eggs and buy a box of animal crackers for the boy as an Apology Gift. It takes the Leadership Pills for him to undergo a Heel Realization.
  • 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.
  • In My Robot Buddy, the Atkins Robotics corporation has introduced robots that look and behave just like humans. Because these robots are expensive, there are "robot-nappers" that try to steal them for profit. The key distinguishing feature is the robots walk stiff-legged. The human protagonist, Jack, not only learns to walk like this himself, but do it so well that he can outpace his robot "brother", Danny One, in a foot race. This, of course, attracts the attention of nearby robot-nappers, who then target him and Danny.
    You'd Think: The robot-nappers would pack a more reliable means of distinguishing the robots from the humans, such as a radar scanning device or a metal detector. Neither technology was unheard of in 1975, when the first book was originally published.
    Instead: They don't, relying only on spotting the stiff-in-the-knee walk. Which gets them confused initially when the "robot" they grab turns out to be human.
    You'd Also Think: The robot-nappers would have a way to shut down the robot they want to steal. Not only would this Cut The Knot of having to figure out who the real robot is, but it'd make it easier to make off with the robot without it struggling and thrashing around.
    Instead: They don't, and instead stand there flabbergasted as Jack and Danny start playing I Am Spartacus over who is the real boy and who is the robot. By the time it dawns on them to just take both boys and figure it out later, the police have already arrived to arrest them.
  • A Hungarian novel, The Nameless Castle: A French count sneaks the princess out of the country, because in the outbreak of The French Revolution, she is in danger of being assassinated. They go to live incognito in a faraway country.
    You'd expect: They blend in with the locals with her already made up, harmless commoner identity, and live in peace Hidden in Plain Sight.
    Instead: The count takes the mission seriously, so she can't even leave their castle, if not at night and under thick veils. They get eerily and conspicuously mysterious, driving the local folk into wild guessing and inspiring gossips and legends, which end up attracting the interest of a spy, entrusted to find her and give her in to execution.
  • Another Hungarian novel, A peculiar marriage: A baron's daughter falls pregnant from a family friend, who is a priest. He decides to find another man to arrange a Shotgun Wedding with for her daughter to cover it up.
    You'd Expect: He would look for a rich peasant or impoverished nobleman, someone who wouldn't mind, or if he does, isn't powerful enough to cause problems.
    Instead: He chooses a young count with a large and influential support system and a law degree, who has fallen in love and gotten engaged with another girl, received a large inheritance, and refuses to roll over and accept the marriage from the start.
    The Result: The young man makes a scene at the wedding in front of witnesses, to the point he has to be forcibly restrained for the ceremony, escapes from the house, he and his relatives start a hell of a lawsuit against the baron, and when the church declares the marriage to be valid, fakes his death, disowns his wife and her bastard from any inheritance, and escapes with his love.
  • One Thousand Arabian Nights
    • The story starts when a queen cheats on her husband. King Shahryar executes her, and believes all women to be unfaithful. He thinks that to prevent this from happening again, he will marry one virgin a night and kill her the next day.
      You'd Expect: Someone in his court would point out the problem in marrying one virgin a night and executing her the next day, and keeping up the practice. He could always stay single. Only one novel rectified this, by explaining that his first wife committed suicide, and her father demanded that the king murder one hundred girls or disaster would strike the kingdom, via Dying Curse.
      You'd Also Expect: No family would agree to marry their daughter to the king because he is a murderer.
      Instead: No one objects to the king, except one Wazir and the girls' families.
      The Result: Thousands of women die in this fashion. Scheherezade is the first queen to break the cycle by telling her murderous husband a story every night, leaving each one on a cliffhanger, until he finally realizes she is faithful after several years and children.
    • Scheherezade narrates the seven voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. Each voyage he goes on is more dangerous than the last.
      You'd Expect: After the first couple voyages, Sinbad believes that the bad luck he gets is more than just coincidence, and stays at home.
      Instead: They didn't call it Seven Voyages for nothing!
  • The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss:
    • Kvothe is said to be arrogant, precocious, and impulsive. He's also the youngest student to have entered the local magical academy, but is not good at making friends while excelling in his classes. He attracts the ire of the Archivist, who bans him from the Archives for bringing in candles. Fire and paper apparently don't mix well. Thing is that Kvothe explains that another student named Ambrose, who was serving as a TA for the Archivist, told him candles were required and demanded money for it.
      You'd Expect: The Archivist would ban Ambrose as well for selling a candle and letting it near his precious books. He's a man that is shown to not care about someone's financial connections or social standing, while Ambrose claims that he can always buy his way out of trouble thanks to his family and extensive wealth.
      Instead: He merely gives Ambrose a tongue-lashing and fires him from the librarian TA position, letting him know that he'll be watching him for those scams because they endanger his books.
      The Result: This fuels a rivalry between both students, one that leads to a lot of collateral damage. Ambrose thinks that he can always get off with a slap on the wrist due to his connections, and thinks Kvothe should just roll over.
    • The protagonist Kvothe and his Implied Love Interest Denna are investigating a dragon that's going on a rampage. As they follow it through the countryside, they find a number of abandoned houses.
      You'd expect: The two to exercise caution, since they don't know what is making the dragon act so erratically and if something happened to one of them, they'd have to travel for miles on-foot to the nearest village to get help.
      Instead: Denna just sticks a random substance she finds lying around in her mouth, which turns out to actually be denner resin and therefore poisonous, prompting Kvothe to abandon his quest to make her eat charcoal to soak up the poison and take care of her the whole night and leaving the dragon to cause more destruction.
    • As a result of this confrontation involving the Archivist, Ambrose has it out for Kvothe. He finds his rival arrogant to a fault. Kvothe would rather focus on his studies and his lute-playing.
      You'd Expect: Ambrose would sabotage Kvothe from a distance, like all the professinoal saboteurs do, and cover himself. Just hire an assassin, send him on a Uriah Gambit considering a dragon was in the nearby area, or something of the sort.
      Instead: He steals Kvothe's lute at the climax of book one. When Kvothe demands it back, Ambrose breaks it in full view of other students to taunt the other young man, who managed to recreate the world's equivalent of a voodoo doll during a class session and had just slain a dragon.
      The Result: Kvothe, in a fit of rage, summons The Name of the Wind without even realizing what he was doing. Master Elodin has to come and calm him down, while getting Kvothe medical treatment. He also agrees to take in Kvothe for his class, and acquires a pardon for him from the Archivist since every of Elodin's students needs access. Witnesses testify at the trial that Ambrose committed theft and destruction of another student's personal property; they may not like Kvothe for his arrogance, but they can't tolerate bullies. The school agrees to watch Ambrose, and they let Kvothe off the hook while hiking up his tuition for future semesters.
  • In Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade, a rash of incidents takes place where lunch money has been disappearing in the classroom. Three different students have lost their lunch money already. A boy named Lester brings his money to school one day.
    You'd expect: Him to put his quarters somewhere safe, like his pocket or backpack.
    Instead: He puts the money right in plain sight on his desk. Naturally, it gets stolen. Lampshaded by his teacher, who facepalms and says, "That wasn't very intelligent of you."
  • A large part of Pegasus in Flight revolves around children- specifically, the problem of overpopulation, and the disturbing result that many illegal children (i.e. children who are not legally registered) are being sold for prostitution, trafficked, and murdered. One of the main characters, a teenager who looks much younger, grew up in a slum and knew of just about everyone involved in the business there, and also managed to free some children who were being held prisoner. Her friend is one of the world's most powerful psychics, but he's also a teenager who is almost totally disabled (as in, he can only move by using his psychic powers) and has no street smarts at all. In addition, not only are kids going missing from slums, they're also going missing from inside the cities of the rich and powerful. The guardians of the two kids are trying to stop the trafficking, and are investigating the murders.
    You'd Expect that their caretakers would put every tracking device known to man on the pair, refuse to let them leave their home without an adult accompanying them and make damn sure that someone knew where they were at all times.
    Instead the pair go out for ice-cream and promptly get abducted. Their trackable bracelets are cut off, and because they're knocked unconscious, nobody can find them for a long while. While their guardians realised how badly they'd screwed up, the fact still remains that someone should have known better.
  • In Murder at Colefax Manor, if you attempt to re-examine the box of dynamite after just lighting one of the fuses, the book calls you out on how stupid it is to do so. Overlaps with Black Comedy.
  • In "Oracle" by Greg Egan, Jack Hamilton, a fundamentalist Christian, is visited after his wife's funeral by a spirit that looks just like a younger version of himself, who tells him that he is ready to take him to where his wife is. This is not the afterlife, but instead an alternate timeline in which Hamilton and his wife accepted an advanced medical treatment from The Hero, Robert Stoney, curing the disease that killed her in the main timeline. Later, The Singularity happened, and now the alternate Hamilton, his wife, and the entire species are enlightened, immortal superbeings. The alternate Hamilton has traveled across spacetime to merge with all the versions of himself from other timelines, so as to prevent an Expendable Alternate Universe situation.
    You'd Expect: The alternate Hamilton would remember that he used to be a religious fanatic, and also remember what convinced him to change his beliefs. He may have discarded religion, but it is obvious that his alternate selves have not, but if Stoney's arguments convinced him, then they should convince his other selves, since they are the same person. Most importantly, he should not say anything that would make a fundamentalist distrust him immediately, like saying that there is no God and all religions are lies.
    Instead: He tells the main Hamilton that there is no God or Devil, and that humans have become like God, but better. He does not actually give any argument or reason for why his Alternate Self should believe him at all.
    The Result: This is of course a major red flag for the Hamilton who is still a Christian, who is now convinced that his other self is not an angel sent by God, but a deception from Hell, in a last-ditch attempt to steal his soul.
    Even worse: When the main Hamilton makes the excuse that he can't leave his stepsons behind, alternate Hamilton basically tells him to abandon them, since their biological father is still alive and it would be easier on them without their stepfather around. So now, even if the other Hamilton wanted to argue his case, it would be impossible for his other self to believe that he still has a functioning moral compass. (This is despite the fact that the posthumans are supposed to be more ethical than unaltered humans.) By the time he finally gets around to giving the choice to merge with him or not, the main Hamilton is so thoroughly convinced that he is a demon that he turns down the offer, thereby damning himself.
  • Origin (2017): Edmond Kirsch has discovered that life can be spontaneously generated by the laws of physics. He also hypothesizes that intelligent AI and roboticism will eventually absorb humanity and create a technological utopia due to survival of the fittest. He plans to announce these discoveries publicly in Barcelona.
    You'd Expect: He keeps his discovery under wraps. After all, he won't gain the recognition he craves if anybody else reveals it first.
    Instead: He visits three prominent religious leaders purely to rub his discovery in their faces and deliberately frames it in the most anti-religious way possible, as well as leaving out key parts of his theory in order to scare them.
    The Result: Two of the religious leaders decide to announce his theory first and discredit him.
    Even Worse: This leads to his artificial AI going insane and having Kirsch and the two religious leaders assassinated in order to preserve the integrity of Kirsch's discovery and make sure as many people as possible see it, thus making the entire plot an indirect result of Kirsch's hubris.
  • Percy Jackson and the Olympians
    • In Battle of the Labyrinth, Percy, Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover encounter a Sphinx who demands they answer her questions before allowing them to pass. Annabeth, being the Smart Girl, naturally steps up to the plate and agrees to answer them. Instead of getting riddles, however, the Sphinx demands she take a standardized test of relatively basic knowledge.
      You'd Expect: Annabeth not to look a Gift Sphinx in the mouth and just take the quiz and be glad the Sphinx is going easier on her.
      Instead: Annabeth's Hubris demands she get a riddle, causing her to go into a brief Character Filibuster listing everything wrong with the idea of standardized testing and how worthless it is in testing a student's ability to apply their knowledge wisely. This pisses off the Sphinx and forces the gang to fight it outright.
    • We also hear the story of Daedalus, one of Annabeth's heroes and another son of Athena. He lost his son Icarus and murdered his nephew Perdix; Athena cursed him to always carry the tattoo of a partridge. Daedalus has been cheating death because Minos, one of his victims, is a judge in the Underworld. Luke comes to him with a deal that if he helps them break into Camp Half-Blood using his labyrinth that they'll make Daedalus the judge of the Underworld and allow him to reunite with his family.
      You'd Expect: Being a genius and tactician, that Daedalus would see this is a ruse and have some backup plans prepared. Luke isn't exactly subtle.
      Instead: He gives Ariadne's string to Luke, spies on Camp Half-Blood as the swordsman Quintus, and concludes that it is lost. Then he uses the Labyrinth to give Kronos's forces a path into the camp.
      Predictably: Daedalus is blindsided on learning that Minos's ghost is working with Kronos to be revived, and plans to sacrifice Daedalus's life. To redeem himself, he dies and lets the labyrinth collapse since it's collected to his life force. Hades puts him to work engineering better roads in the Underworld, only letting his nephew visit
    • In The Last Olympian, Annabeth reveals that Hermes dislikes her because Luke came to her begging for her to run away with him. He was scared of Kronos taking his body to become a mortal host.
      You'd Expect: Luke would remember that his List of Transgressions — framing Percy for theft before attempting to murder him, poisoning Thalia's tree, leaving Annabeth to hold up the sky and taking her hostage— would mean that Annabeth has no reason to trust him. The last one is especially egregious since it was a Wounded Gazelle Gambit that played on Annabeth's Big Brother Worship, where she was used against her friends. Luke would need to prove that this isn't another gambit to use her against Percy and the other members of Camp Half-Blood.
      Instead: He shows up at her house with no peace offering, no "Sorry I nearly killed Percy, nearly killed you that time with the sky, and tried to convince Thalia to join Kronos," and no proof that he genuinely needs help. Annabeth, who has a streak of white in her hair from when she held up the sky, turns him down. While she later gets through to him during the climactic fight, she continually gets reasons that Luke cannot be trusted and probably would have betrayed her anyway.
    • In The Last Olympian, we get a flashback to 60 years ago, when Nico and Bianca were little. Their birth was forbidden by an agreement made among Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, so Zeus sets off an explosion intended to kill them, but gets Hades' mortal wife instead. The Oracle of Delphi's host, a teenage girl, appears.
      You'd Expect: Given what gods usually do to people when they're mad, she would keep her head down and stay out of sight until after he'd cooled off and sent the children into hiding. Angering a god, even one who can't directly harm you due to the Oracle's power, is never a good idea.
      Instead: She tells Hades, to his face, that Zeus was justified in trying to kill the children because he violated the agreement. He promptly curses the Oracle to be trapped in her body and unable to move on to a new host even after her death.
    • In the follow up series of The Heroes of Olympus Zeus knows Gaea is awakening and the giants are returning to life. Said giants were defeated by the Olympians thousands of years ago and can only be killed by a god and demigod working together. He also nearly lost the second Titan war by refusing to take action until it was too late.
      You'd Expect: Zeus to rally the gods and demigods together do slay the giants and return Gaia to sleep.
      Instead: Due to wounded pride, Zeus closes Olympus, forbids the gods to contact the demigods, and thinks the Olympians can defeat the giants on their own despite knowing that is impossible.
  • In Mercedes Lackey's Cinderella retelling Phoenix and Ashes, evil sorceress Alison (the wicked stepmother character) uses her magic to bewitch wealthy industrialist Charles Robinson into marrying her.
    You'd Expect: For her next trick, evil sorceress Alison would bewitch wealthy industrialist Charles Robinson into changing his will in order to benefit her.
    Instead: Alison bewitches Charles into volunteering for WWI, where he dies in the trenches. His previous will left everything to his daughter, forcing Alison to come up with increasingly convoluted schemes in order to keep control of his fortune. This is made even more inexcusable by the fact that Alison is implied to be an experienced Black Widow, so you would think she would have had enough experience to recognize that you need to make sure you're the one mentioned in your husband's will before you kill him.
  • In the Conan the Barbarian story "The Phoenix on the Sword," Dion, one of the nobles who is a part of Ascalante's conspiracy to overthrow Conan, is meeting with Ascalante's slave, a Stygian by the name of Thoth-Amon. During their conversation, Thoth-Amon tells him about his past as a sorcerer of Stygia whose Ring of Power was stolen from him by a thief and tells him that he wants to make an alliance with him against Ascalante.
    You'd expect: Dion to keep his mouth shut about the "ring of good fortune" that he picked up from a Shemitish thief who stole it from a sorcerer of Stygia, make the alliance with Thoth-Amon, and send him on his way.
    Instead: Dion not only tells him about the ring, but actually shows it to him, prompting Thoth-Amon to recognize it as his lost ring and reclaim it by stabbing Dion to death.
  • "The Plague of Peacocks" is a short story by Diana Wynne Jones. A childless couple called the Platts move into a small town. They fix up an old house into a cottage and release passive-aggressive village news. They incite Hate at First Sight from their new neighbors, owing to the fact that their form of "caring" is not really helpful at all. Mrs. Willis gets the brunt of their Unwanted Assistance while she takes up extra typing to pay for her children's ponies. Soon enough, they note that the residents tend to let their cats, dogs, and birds run loose because it's the norm.
    You'd Expect: The Platts would simply return the pets home on seeing them. Or, leave them alone. It may be Values Dissonance but even in the time period, you don't mess with other people's beloved fur and feather babies.
    Instead: They reveal to several families that they took their dogs and cats to the vet and put them down. For the crime of wandering around. The only mercy is that the families aren't given the bills for this procedure, which can be expensive as it is. Mrs. Platt only gets the memo when she realizes a lot of families don't like their pets euthanized, but decides to clip the wings of a budgie she found, without asking for permission. This would be grounds for a malpractice lawsuit of the vet in question, who apparently did this several times without asking why the Platts were doing this.
    The Result: All the animals in the neighborhood go Mass "Oh, Crap!" whenever they see Mr. or Mrs. Platt, bolting for the hills if they can. The adults hope bitterly that the Plaths run into Daniel Emmanuel, a toddler that is Goo-Goo-Godlike and a Reality Warper; the kids take it a step further and ask Daniel's family to make him do something. Linda, barely a toddler herself, is his manager and explains that Daniel has to get angry enough to come up with a creative idea. She does agree to try her best, however, and "introduce" Daniel to the new neighbors. After a few run-ins with the Platts and realizing he doesn't like them or their lessons, and seeing a nature documentary on television, Daniel infests their house and greenhouses with peacocks, too many for them to take to the vet for euthanasia.  The adults all pretend to take ill so that they sadly cannot help the Platts with their problem.
  • Povestea lui Harap Alb: Long story short, the youngest of the three sons of an emperor proves himself to be worthy of a journey to his father's brother's kingdom. The young prince has a magical, talking horse and he also has the protection of Saint Friday (a woman with magical powers, that can travel and see many things). His father has warned him to not trust hairless people, because they lack hair due to being evil. On his way he enters a forest in which he meets a hairless man that offers to guide him. At first the prince refuses, but afterwards meets the same man multiple times, each time being under a disguise (still clearly hairless and the prince doesn't recognize him). The prince has difficulties getting out of the forest and is annoyed by it.
    You'd expect: The prince to ask his horse if he could use magic to get out (like flying above the forest) or to try to call Saint Friday or someone else from Heaven.
    Instead: He assumes that this is "the land of hairless people" and decides to let himself be guided by this man. Later they stop at a fountain. The hairless man uses a rope to get inside the fountain in order to get water and asks the prince to get him out when he finishes. So he does and afterwards the hairless man tells him that he should go inside the well, because he can see his future there.
    You'd then expect: The prince to not fall for this obvious trick and continue his journey.
    Or: If the curiosity is to big, he would ask his horse or Saint Friday if such a thing is possible, or make some sort of plan on how to escape from the well in case it's a trick.
    Instead: He believes it right away and goes inside the well. Surprise, surprise, it really was a trick. The hairless man tells the prince he won't let him outside unless he lets the hairless man pretend that he actually the prince, while the real prince pretends to be a servant.
    You'd then expect: The prince to ask his talking horse or Saint Friday for help. While it was his fault for getting into this situation, he could point out that what he did wasn't with bad intent, while the hairless man is a charlatan that is deserving of punishment. Plus, if he impersonates the prince, he could hurt innocent people. The prince could say that he is willing to take responsibility for his mistake, but it's more important to stop the villain at the moment.
    Alternatively: He would lie that he does this deal, then finish the evil man. He would be lying and he's to blame that this happened at all, again it's for the greater good.
    Instead: He accepts the deal which results in him having to risk his life multiple times in order to get out from this situation.
  • Wilbur Smith novel Power of the Sword gives us Gerhard Fourie, the head driver at the H'ani Diamond Mine, who is convinced by Afrikaner outlaw Lothar De La Rey to help steal the mine's monthly shipment of diamonds in transit. Fourie later gets cold feet and wants out of the scheme, but Lothar threatens him with death should he not play his part.
    You'd Expect: Fourie would go to the mine's owner, Centaine de Thiry Courtney, and confess that he's being threatened into helping rob her. Even if he can't conceal the fact that he was willing to help with the robbery early on, this would hardly be less likely to antagonize Centaine than what he actually does.
    Instead: Fourie calls the mine's employees out on strike to prevent the diamonds from leaving, thereby getting on the bad side of Centaine, who's currently struggling to keep the mine running and as many of her employees in work as she can during the Great Depression, and leaving Lothar unaccounted for.
    Result: Unwilling to trust her striking employees with her precious diamonds, Centaine hastily decides to drive them to the bank herself. Lothar carries out the robbery anyway, the diamonds are never recovered, and the resulting financial loss - about £51 million in today's money - nearly puts the H'ani Mine out of business.
  • Pride and Prejudice: After spending much of the book believing that Mr. Darcy had wronged Mr. Wickham, Elizabeth Bennet receives a letter from the former which exposes the latter as a Manipulative Bastard who tried to swindle Darcy's sister out of her inheritance. She tells only her sister, Jane, of this new information.
    You'd Expect: The sisters, and/or Darcy to expose Wickham's evil ways to the world. Given that he, contrary to the promise he made Elizabeth, had been slandering Darcy whenever he could, this action seems imperative.
    Instead: They don't. Thus, Wickham is free to elope with the youngest Bennet, Lydia. Mr. Darcy has to bribe Wickham to get the two married, lest Lydia's reputation be ruined. (Elizabeth spends a good while berating herself for her previous decision to keep quiet.)
  • The Princess Diaries:
    • Lilly- a teenage girl who is talked up as being very intelligent- wants to become class president. The problem is that no one will vote for her. So she hatches a plan which involves her flighty, anxious-yet-charismatic best friend, Princess Mia Thermopolis Renaldo, running for the position, with Lilly helping her to win the election behind the scenes. If Mia wins, then she will almost immediately step down and cede the position to Lilly. It's a foolproof plan!
      You'd Expect: Lilly, having created this plan in which Mia plays a pivotal, very exact role, would tell her about said plan. Bear in mind that the two are best friends. They converse by email nearly every night. They constantly see each other at school and outside it. And Lilly knows how worrisome and angsty Mia gets when she's forced into things like this. Yet she does not at any point say to Mia, 'Hey, the reason I nominated you was so I could become president. Don't worry, you won't have to actually take the position.'
      Instead: Poor Communication Kills. Lilly doesn't tell Mia her plan for weeks, long after she's put it in action- explicitly refusing to do so- and Mia snaps from the stress of not knowing what the hell is going on. (There's also the fact that she, as a Shrinking Violet, openly detests the idea of being class president.) Cue Mia's Heroic BSoD and Lilly being given a well-deserved What the Hell, Hero?. When Mia later wins the election, she decides she's going to do the job anyway.
    • Mia has invited her boyfriend and best friend, Michael and Lilly Moscovitz, for Christmas over the Genovian holidays. Her family is hosting them while Mia balances royal duties with making sure that Michael has a good Christmas gift.
      You'd Expect: Lilly would be on her best behavior. Grandmere already doesn't like Lilly for organizing a strike at the plaza over a fired employee that Lilly hooked up with during Mia's birthday party.
      Instead: Lilly does strip bowling at the Genovian palace, which causes one of the servants to get fired for taking off a glove and smacking her partner. Keep in mind that Lilly is underage, and she is a guest. Michael compared to her is an utter gentleman
      The Result: Mia and Lilly have a big fight on the beach on Christmas morning, with the Last Straw being the self-help books they got for each other as presents. While Lilly maintains her arrogant pose reveals how staid and hypocritical these traditions are, Mia points out she's being rude as a guest to her family. If not for a stranded cruise ship interrupting them, it could have easily made the rest of the visit awkward for both girls.
    • In Party Princess, it's revealed Lilly and Michael are more aloof than usual because they know their parents are separating. Lilly when hers and Mia's stories get turned down by Seventeen magazine decides to start a school literary magazine to publish the tales and earn money for the school council. It's revealed that while Mia's story is dark and brooding, Lilly's are NC-17.
      You'd Expect: Lilly would remember that her audience are minors and this has to meet teacher approval.
      Instead: She publishes the stories, uncensored, and sells them in the cafeteria. Her refusing to retract Mia's story is jerk but not half as idiotic as publicly selling content inappropriate for high school students.
      The Result: Mia for the only time ever sees Principal Gupta enter the cafeteria with several teachers. They escort Lilly out, call her parents, and confiscate the issues while assuring everyone they'll be refunded. Tina even lampshades that Lilly is busted.
    • Michael, Mia's high school boyfriend and Lilly's brother, eventually wants to have sex with her. She is attracted to him but has reservations due to being underage, as well as her health concerns, and that her dad would kill Michael if he ever took advantage of Mia. So they've been talking about when she's ready. Michael is no longer a virgin, due to sleeping with one of his classmates, who already has a boyfriend. This classmate spurs Green-Eyed Monster in Mia, due to the former cloning fruit flies as a teenager and Mia having accomplished "nothing".
      You'd Expect: That at some point during their talks of when they're going to sleep together that Michael would mention this fact.
      Instead: He doesn't. Not in a mature way, at least. When Mia finally decides to sleep with Michael, as a means to keep him in New York rather than let him travel to Japan to work on a robotics project, he casually mentions that he's no longer a virgin. And admits that he helped Judith Gershner cheat on her boyfriend. Understandably, Mia flips out and breaks up with him on the spot. While people call her out for judging Michael for having casual sex, she was perfectly in the right to do so, as Michael admits when they talk about it two years later. Mia wasn't ready for sex, and Michael wasn't ready to admit he had lost his virginity in a questionable manner.
    • Lilly is dating J.P., an aspiring playwright whom Mia invited to sit with them. It's revealed that J.P. is only dating her to get close to Mia, whom he likes because she is a princess and because she was the first person who was nice to him at their school.
      You'd Expect: That J.P. shouldn't have dated Lilly in the first place, or break up with her before things go too far. And that he wouldn't admit that he was only dating her to keep Mia close, if he's going that route.
      Instead: J.P. sleeps with Lilly, keeps dating her to the point where she comes to love him, and when breaking up with her says it's because Mia is available after the latter breaks up with Michael. This bites him in the butt two years later; when Mia finds this out from Lilly, she calls out J.P. for lying to her and using Lilly. Then Mia breaks up with him and cancels his newest play, since it features her and thus can be quashed by Genovian lawyers.
    • Meanwhile Lilly is bitter and hurt from all of this aftermath.
      You'd Expect: She would tell Mia what happened, everything. Especially the part of J.P. using her to get close to Mia. Mia if she knew outright wouldn't tolerate such behavior towards her best friend. Lilly knows that Mia is oblivious to a fault.
      Instead: Lilly hides the details about J.P. wanting Mia, and doesn't tell her after Mia accidentally kisses J.P. and then goes on a "platonic" date with him. Instead she ends their friendship, and posts a hate site about Mia that could have gotten her expelled if Mia had told her father. Mia as a result of the site and her breakup with Michael sinking in suffers depression, and the two don't speak for two years. During those two years Mia dates J.P., and nearly loses her virginity to him. Michael then gets furious with Lilly for being so cruel and calls her out; Lilly then goes My God, What Have I Done? and thinks she can't repair the damage. Lilly's response to hearing Mia's plans to sleep with J.P. only tells Michael to go and "help" Mia on prom night. She doesn't actually tell her former friend the truth until Mia confronts her outright about it. And yes, Mia lampshades that Lilly should have told her earlier because she wouldn't have let J.P. off the hook.
    • Kenny is one of the geniuses in Mia's class; he's also socially awkward and believed her to be in love with Boris, though presumably the air got cleared up when he saw her dating Michael. At one point he, Mia and J.P. are lab partners on an independent chemistry project. Mia is already hopeless at anything involving math and J.P. isn't paying attention, so Kenny chooses their science project.
      You'd Expect: With Kenny being a genius that he would pick something that wouldn't get him in trouble.
      Instead: He fixes the equations so that rather than making nitrocellulose, as he tells their chemistry teacher, he has their team make nitrostarch. AKA a highly stable and explosive substance that was used in World War II grenades.
      The Result: Kenny blows up the school while trying to stabilize the nitrostarch, and loses his eyebrows. To top it all off, the school suspends him for knowingly making an explosive substance. When Mia tries to argue righteously she and J.P. ought to be suspended as well, her stepfather Mr. Giannini points out that he knows with her missing school that week that she had no idea what Kenny was doing.
    • Princess Mia finds out that she has a half-sister, Olivia Grace Harrison. Olivia has been orphaned, after her mother died in an accident, and she lives with her aunt, uncle and cousins. Philippe has been sending child support and letters to Olivia, because he's been grieving over her mother's death and feels guilty about having to keep her a secret.
      You'd Expect: The family would treat Olivia like one of their own, since that's basic human decency. Also it would be a pragmatic decision since Olivia does have a father who cares about her and is royalty of one of the most powerful and stable city-states in Europe.
      Instead: Uncle Rick and Aunt Catherine are little better than the Dursleys, as Mia lampshades when she visits them. They use Olivia's child support to fund a construction empire and lavish lifestyle, while teaching her that she is average compared to her cousins due to being biracial. To keep her out of the public eye, they deny her a computer, Internet time, and cellphone, or even admittance to a scholarship art school, so that she can never find out the truth. Then when Mia shows up at their doorstep, Aunt Catherine slams the door on Mia's foot, accidentally injuring royalty.
      The Result: Mia and Philippe are horrified when they learn about Olivia's living situation. Mia, thanks to Lilly's sleuthing, finds out that Catherine and Rick only took in Olivia for the money, and that they plan to isolate her further by moving to Qalif to work on a construction project. They use their lawyers and the sheer evidence of child abuse to get Olivia away from Rick and Catherine, who end up losing their cash cow.
    • Then we have Annabelle Jenkins. The local Alpha Bitch at Olivia's school, she gets away with murder because her dad is a lawyer that threatens to sue everyone if they even speak out against her. Jenkins also is revealed to be Uncle Rick's lawyer, and Uncle Rick has been consulting him about Olivia's situation.
      You'd Expect: She would keep her mouth shut. If Olivia's relatives are seeking legal advice about keeping her a secret while moving her to Qalif, then confidentiality is key.
      Instead: Annabelle knocks down Olivia during the school day and challenges her to a fight. When a confused, hurt Olivia asked what she did wrong, Annabelle calls her a liar for telling everyone that Olivia's dad is an archaeologist when he is actually a prince, and that Olivia is a princess. Which means that even if Mia hadn't shown up in the nick of time to rescue Olivia, that would have been a breach of confidentiality since Annabelle spilled her guts about her dad's client. Oops.
    • A few days later, Olivia returns to school after finding out she is a princess and her relatives are battling Mia and Philippe for custody of her. Annabelle wants to still pound her, but Mia has called on the Genovian Royal Guard to protect Olivia while the latter is at school. They show they will put Annabelle in handcuffs if she even lays a finger on the new princess.
      You'd Expect: Annabelle would Know When to Fold 'Em and knock it off; she already messed up by outing Olivia as a princess. Olivia is moving away in a few days anyway either to Genovia or to Qalif depending on who wins the custody battle.
      Instead: She gets her dad to put a restraining order on Olivia's bodyguards, so that she can pound the princess after school. In broad daylight, where the paparazzi have been hanging out to get footage of Olivia.
      The Result: Annabelle is caught on camera punching Olivia in the nose, and is chased down by the Genovian guards for several blocks. The press circulates the story for weeks, and it's The Last Straw for Mia and Philippe, who use the assault to get Catherine to cede custody of Olivia when they see how apathetic Catherine and Rick are about Olivia's bloody nose. Then the Jenkins family gets sued by Genovia for assaulting a member of thier royal family. Nice going there, Annabelle.
    • Later on, after Olivia moves to Genovia permanently, she has to occasionally host her nasty cousin Lady Luisa. At one point, while Prince Rene is trying to sue to depose Mia and install himself as the Prince of Genovia, Olivia is forced to babysit Rene's children, along with Nishi and Luisa. Luisa then blows off babysitting to make out with her boyfriend in Mia and Michael's bedroom, and even trying on Mia's crown, which is a historic relic. Olivia confronts them and tries to delete all the photos involved..
      You'd Expect: Lady Luisa would know that this would be violating a lot of social etiquette and privacy and keep her mouth shut.
      Instead: She posts pictures to social media. Which many websites immediately find, pegging Mia and Michael's room
      The Result: Despite Olivia trying to ask for Luisa to get a lighter punishment since Luisa's parents are divorcing and neither want custody of her, Mia and Philippe decide the best punishment would be to ban Luisa from Mia's coronation.
  • In Princess Dzhavakha, Nina sees her father wants to marry the blond baroness whom she can barely stand.
    You'd Expect: That she would just tell her father how she feels about it. He adores her and listens to her opinion, and if she explains to him how she really, really hates the idea, he will almost certainly abandon it. Or he will take it slowly and let Nina realize that the blond baroness is really a very nice lady and only a Designated Villain in Nina's eyes.
    Instead: She keeps quiet until the official announcement of the upcoming wedding.
    You'd Then Expect: That she would ask her father to at least delay it and let her get used to the upcoming change. Especially since there is a perfectly solid reason for a long delay – Yuliko's recent death.
    Instead: She runs away, encounters bandits and nearly gets killed.
  • Prisoners of Power features a backwater planet Saraksh where people live in a dystopian postapocalyptic society. An undercover agent from the Galactic Security infiltrated one of the governments and is meticulously implementing a decades-long plan of planetary reformation. There must be flat out no interference from the outside.
    You'd Expect: The Galactic Security to explicitly declare this planet under quarantine so that no slapdash space explorer will crash in and mess with the operation. Or that they put some satellite on the planet's orbit that would warn those approaching to turn back.
    Instead: They do absolutely nothing and, naturally, a slapdash space explorer crashes in and messes with the operation.
  • Ramona Quimby:
    • Beezus and Ramona has this in the last chapter. When Beezus comes home the day of her birthday, her mother asks if she can watch Ramona for about twenty minutes because Ramona ruined one batch of cake by putting all the eggs in the kitchen, and Dorothy has to start over. Beezus is shocked, and angry that Ramona isn't sorry about the fact that she spoiled a birthday cake. Even so, she keeps it together and reads "Hansel and Gretel" to Ramona while her mother is stirring the batter.
      You'd Expect: Dorothy would stay in the kitchen keeping an eye on the cake, and keeping Ramona out. When Ramona is allowed to have time to herself, she tends to get into mischief. Plus, Beezus asked for a cake with pink frosting specifically for this occasion. Also, generally, it's good cooking advice to not leave the kitchen while the oven is on so that you can check on what you've baked.
      You'd Also Expect: Dorothy would warn Ramona that if she even touches the cake or messes with it, she's going to her room and will miss out on the evening festivities. Ramona is only four but she understands the meaning of being sent to her room.
      Instead: Once the cake is in the oven, Dorothy apparently leaves the kitchen offscreen for a few minutes. Beezus finishes reading to Ramona and then starts reading one new craft book that she received as an early birthday present.
      The Result: Ramona starts acting out the tale of Hansel and Gretel by spilling graham cracker crumbs on the rug. Beezus finds it Actually Pretty Funny when Ramona explains she's imagining their dad as a woodcutter, but doesn't want her little sister creating a mess.
      You'd Then Expect: Beezus would think carefully about handling this situation. Ramona can be very Literal-Minded and go Comically Missing the Point due to being a toddler.
      Instead: Beezus without thinking suggests that pretending to be Gretel is a good idea, forgetting that Gretel pushed the witch into the oven.
      The Result: Ramona takes advantage of the lull in the kitchen to shove her doll into the oven, where it lands in the cake pan. The doll burns into the batter, which becomes rubbery. Aside from the fact that Ramona ruined the second birthday cake, she could have easily started a house fire. Beezus understandably starts crying, and Ramona does too in either My God, What Have I Done? mode or realizing that she's being scolded. Dorothy does tell Ramona that she knows better than to play with the oven before sending her to her room, but it's hard to say if Ramona did.
      Fortunately: Aunt Beatrice is coming over for dinner and she goes to a bakery to pick a beautiful birthday cake for her niece. Beezus by then is able to laugh when Aunt Beatrice jokingly tells her and Dorothy to make sure nothing happens to this one. The cake survives to the end of the evening, and everyone is able to enjoy it.
    • In "Ramona and Her Father," Ramona gets jealous when Beezus is chosen as the star of the Christmas pageant. She, Howie, and Davy volunteer to be sheep, and she says her mother will make her a costume. Mrs. Quimby is patient with the request while gently telling Ramona there is no time with her working as a receptionist in a doctor's office, but Mr. Quimby, who is jobless for the moment, isn't. He asks if Ramona thought that her mother's schedule was limited before volunteering herself.
      You'd Expect: They would tell Ramona she needs to sew the costume herself or have her father learn since all he's doing is collecting unemployment. Or, tell the church that Ramona can't be a sheep and avoid the commmitment entirely. It's not a bad thing to teach seven-year-old Ramona that if she wants something, she needs to work for it. In the next book, she's able to use her mother's sewing machine for making trousers for her toy Ella Funt.
      Instead: Mr. Quimby, grumpy from not smoking cigarettes, tells off Ramona for asking her mother for a big project and treats her like it was an unreasonable request from a toddler. His wife does his best to make a costume, but she only manages the tail and ears, meaning Ramona has to wear old pajamas with faded bunnies on them to complete the outfit.
      The Result: The night of the pageant, Ramona is embarrassed to be wearing old pajamas and tries to hide rather than go onstage. Her family has No Sympathy about it, including her dad, though some girls put makeup on Ramona so she looks more like a sheep. The book lampshades it, with Ramona thinking his grandmother's parable about "not seeing anything off the back of a horse" is ridiculous.
    • In Ramona Forever, Howie's Uncle Hobart is arranging his marriage to the girls' aunt Beatrice. Ramona and Beezus are bridesmaids, with Willa Jean as a flower girl and Howie as the ring bearer. They go to the mall to get the dresses and boy clothes, as well as arrange for flowers. Uncle Hobart treats the kids for ice-cream before they go to the florist. This means they have to stay outside while he makes his orders, for the bridal party and his groom party. Beezus is the sensible one and asks about flowers for the church. Uncle Hobart absentmindedly says that he's taken care of it.
      You'd Expect:  Beezus as the sensible one to point out that actually he didn't take care of it. He didn't give any orders to the florist on what sort of flowers to have for the church.
      Alternatively: The florist would bring it up on hearing this little exchange. Even if they are slammed due to the fact that June is wedding season, it's good marketing to offer package deals.
      The Result: Hobart realizes he forgot the day before the wedding to get flowers for the church. Aunt Beatrice is already stressed with wrapping up her teaching job and grading papers, and she bursts into tears while fighting with him about it. She rightly points out that it's June, so no florist will do a last-minute rush job. In the TV series adaptation, Aunt Beatrice isn't as stressed but she's worried because it's still an inconvenience and Hobart tells her over the phone, the day of the wedding.
      Fortunately: Ramona is the one who hits up the last-minutes solution: pick some flowers in the yard. Beatrice says they only have "buggy pansies" in the Quimby backyard, but Grandpa Day, who has arrived for the wedding, says that people in the neighborhood are always willing to help out so they simply need to make a few phone calls. Sure enough, he's right: several neighbors are happy to trim their bushes or donate peonies in time for the big wedding. 
  • In The Raft, after losing her only food supply, Robie finds a baby seal, who she calls Starbuck, on the island, and it dies.
    You'd Expect: Robie to eat Starbuck so that she at least eats something.
    Instead: She doesn't eat it, because she thinks that eating it would be too sad.
  • Ranger's Apprentice: Cassandra has the traitor who's kept her besieged in Castle Araulen at her mercy. Horace, Maddie, and Cassandra are all armed, plus there are three other soldiers and Duncan present, while the traitor is on his own.
    You'd Expect: For her to simply order him to be locked up, maybe have Maddie give him an arrow to the knee to be on the safe side.
    Instead: She insists on dueling him herself, just because she's angry.
    The Result: Since he's a trained soldier, he drives Cassandra back, presses her against the wall, wounds her, and nearly kills her, with only a last-minute gamble saving her life.
    For Added Idiocy: The conflict in this duology only occurred because the succession appeared to be weak. If Cassandra had been killed, then either the Prince Regent or her teenage daughter would've taken the throne, making the Araulen succession appear even weaker.
    To Take It Further: Duncan stops Horace or Maddie from getting involved, claiming that she needs to fight him herself in order to prove her worth. Except that there's no one present who is not a loyal supporter, and with the exception of the three soldiers (who could probably be convinced to stay quiet, particularly since they just risked their lives fighting for her), if they wanted to, they could just put out a story about how Cassandra dueled him and won easily, and no one would know.
  • Rebecca:
    • Maxim admits this in hindsight. When he married Rebecca, it was partly for her status and to be the proud owner of Manderley, but he also thought he liked her. Rebecca was a catch, and fetching, with "beauty, brains, and breeding". After they wed, Rebecca took him to a cliff in Monte Carlo on their honeymoon, and gave an Evil Laugh. She revealed herself to be a Manipulative Bitch that loved no one and married Maxim because it was expected of her. It turns out she Really Gets Around and wants to keep dallying with men. She claims that divorcing her after four days would make him look like a fool, so instead, she'll play the part of the perfect wife and lady of Manderley, and have affairs with his consent.
      You'd Expect: Maxim would see the red flags as what they are and do the important thing: RUN. With his fortune, he could annul the marriage and flee the country so he doesn't have to face the shame of divorcing his wife after four days. The novel's prologue shows him and his new wife having a content life in Switzerland.
      Instead: Even when the dust settled, Maxim agreed to this deal and stayed. He himself admits that it was a stupid thing to do.
      The Result: Rebecca uses Maxim as her punching bag, emotionally speaking. She has an affair with his sister's husband, wrecking the marriage, and dallies around with men while pushing her husband's buttons. Maxim says she noticed he hated her cousin Favell with a passion, and she invited him more to Cornwall. Eventually, she develops terminal cancer, and decides the best thing to do is goad Maxim into murdering her, by lying that she's pregnant with her cousin's child and deliberately flaunting him around. As Maxim puts it when he finds out she was dying anyway, she ended up winning even when it seems she lost.
    • Another one from Favell. He's established as not completely stupid since he found Rebecca's death suspicious. It turns out that Rebecca sent him a letter the day that she died, but failed to meet up with him.
      You'd Expect: He would relate his suspicions to Ms. Danvers first, since they have a good relationship and she has already hosted him secretly. They could pool their information about what they know that day and if Maxim had a motive to kill Rebecca, more so than usual anyway. Ms. Danvers herself admits that she doesn't know what happened the day that Rebecca died and cannot understand how an otherwise trained sailor would end up drowning in her boat. She does know one thing, however: Rebecca didn't love Favell because she didn't love any of her many paramours.
      Instead: He goes straight to Maxim to blackmail him about the letter, assuming that he can get some money out of the man to buy his silence about what he knows. Then he calls on "Danny" as a witness without talking out a story with her.
      The Result: Mrs. Danvers refutes his claims that Rebecca loved him, because Rebecca only loved Mrs. Danvers. She then breaks down, which doesn't help his case.
  • In Red on Red, Cazare of Kagheta Adgemar the White Fox is determined to engage his militia cavalery in battle with army of Taligue under Duke Alva's command - only to get rid of ill-disciplined and rebellious cazarons. After that, he planned his elite troops, the Scarlet Guard, to engage in battle and wipe remains of Alva's troops out. Mind that Scarlet Guard alone outnumbered Alva's army THRICE. Cazarones, no matter how ill-disciplined they were, outnumbered Taligoians 15 times!
    You'd Think: Having three times more firepower and Alva's infantry already weary, Scarlet Guard would just have a shooting practice.
    Instead: They've started hand-to-hand combat. And lost.
    More Stupidity: Having 100 units of heavy artillery (do not ask how) Adgemar's ordnance commander could not manage to cover bombardment sector with grapeshot fire. They charged guns with cannonballs and aimed in every single unit of Alva's mobile 3-pounders. No wonder they've lost the artillery duel.
    And Even Girl: Adgemar could just NOT engage in a battle AT ALL. If he, after seeing cazarones smashed, retreated to his capital, Raviata, and commanded his Scarlet Guard to block Alva the way of retreat and raid enemy's camp at night, Alva's army would be doomed and his cruel-but-genious plan of drowning Birissian villages vasted.
    As A Result: Scarlet's guard was defeated, remains of it were drowned in their villages with Alva-provoked-artificial-flood, and few commanders who were smart enough to run away from flood were beheaded by Adgemar in excuse for invason to Taligue. Well, Cazar himelf was killed by Alva pretty soon after that.
    • The world of Kertiana is specially designed by Abvenies (it's creators ) as a nasty place for cheaters and oathbreakers. Well, at least if they are descendants of Abvenies. Breaching of Bload Oath by Abveniy's offspring carries a death penalty, though not on oathbreaker himself, but on his kins and anyone who happened to be near. And very place of their dwelling is to be destroyed beyond any possibility to live.
      What is the sense of such a very-special-justice? Let's just leave the question beside. Abvenies are gone and supposed to be dead, so no one will answer anyway. However...
      You'd Expect: Abvenies, before their departing, had carved in a stone, in a thousand copies, extremely short and strict explanation of what happens if somebody dares to break the Blood Oath.
      Instead: Nothing like that. Laws of ancient Abvenian magic had faded to semi-forgotten, semi-misunderstood legends long before the very religion of Abveii was banished by Esperatian Church.
      More Stupidity: Long chain of adulteries and side-begotten children had lessened the very possibility of stating who is the true descendant of Ancient God practically to zero. There are 21 men, whose only careless word can turn their native land to Sodom and Homorra. And only one of them is aware of it.
      As A Result Nador province is ruined to dust.
    • Duke Roque Alva is the one who knows what Blood Oath matters and is aware that he and his province Canalloa will be in heavy danger if he breaks First Marshal oath of allegiance (which includes Blood Oath formula).
      He knows for sure that his lancer Richard Oakdell is a descendant of Abvenii, like himself, and, er, not very smart boy in the same time. And tended to make hasty promises.
      You'd Expect: Alva explained to young fool that he should abstain from ANY oath including the word BLOOD, in ANY form. For the sake of his mother, sisters and cousin's life, at least.
      And if he'd be foolish enough to make such an oath, he should keep it BY ALL MEANS or DIE TRYING TO KEEP IT.
      And if he'd break it, he should kill himself in 16 days. And his kins must reject him.
      Instead: Alva said to Richard nothing but slight hints.
      More stupidity: When Alva was imprisoned by Aldo Rakan who is actually not Rakan but Pridd, see the reason above and brought to court and was to be sentenced to death by Richard Oakdell, Valentine Pridd and Robert Epine, he had known for sure that Aldo is not Rakan. And he had figured (correctly) that Aldo, having been obsessed with idea of Abvenian Renaissanse (but totally ignorant of the Blood matter) might have made them to make the Blood Oath. Which they can accidentally break any minute, because they don't know, who is the TRUE object of their oath ( Alva himself). And three provinces of Taligue will face the terrible doom.
      You'd Expect: having nothing to lose anymore, he should just declare Aldo's true identity, and reveal all the Blood matter.
      Instead: He remained silent. Oh, no! He made a lot of jests about Aldo's white trousers.
      Result Nador province is ruined to dust. And it was just a happy occasion that Epine remained, for Robert was about to proclaim a death sentence to his TRUE King!
  • The Red Shoes: When the shoes made Karen dance uncontrollably the first time.
    You'd Expect: The old lady to have figured that they were cursed and dangerous, taken them away for good, and had them burnt as she had done with Karen's old pauper's pair.
    Instead: The shoes are put in a cupboard, allowing Karen to take them out again another day, which leads to her ultimate doom.
  • Redwall: In The Bellmaker, a small team of Redwallers have joined an army of the natives of Southsward in the hope of overthrowing a pair of tyrants who have ruled their land with a cruel paw. One of them is Rufe Brush, a naive squirrel who doesn't have much experience of the world beyond Redwall. During the final battle, Rufe and his friends go up against one of the tyrants, who Rufe hits with a stone- but doesn't kill.
    You'd Expect that someone would keep an eye on Rufe so he couldn't do anything stupid.
    Instead Rufe decides that having knocked her down, she's out of the fight. She, in turn, waits for him to let his guard down and nearly kills him, were it not for one of his friends who jumps in and gets killed himself.
  • Gleams of Aeterna, a Russian epic fantasy, is a mine of brilliant examples. Leave alone Richard Oakdell who is Incarnated Stupidity Itself. Take a look on any character who is stated as smart or, at least, sly.
  • The Rise of Kyoshi:
    • Prior to the events of the book, Kyoshi's parents, a pair of outlaws named Hark and Jesa, leave her in the port village of Yokoya after making arrangements with one of the villagers for him to take care of her. It's later implied that they acted out of love for their daughter, wanting to spare her the hardships and dangers of the outlaw lifestyle.
      You'd Expect: That if the couple do care about Kyoshi, they would try and keep an eye on her to ensure she's safe and healthy, and that her carer is keeping to his end of the deal. Perhaps send a trusted member of their vast criminal network to check Yokoya every now and again?
      Additionally: Perhaps they could look into finding a more prosperous community to leave Kyoshi in? Yokoya is an impoverished village, and as is indicated later on, Earth Kingdom people generally don't care for people not of their blood, or important blood barring that.
      Instead: The pair of them seemingly assume Kyoshi will be all right in Yokoya, and make no attempts to observe her situation.
      Result: The villager throws Kyoshi out onto the streets once Hark and Jesa are gone, and all the other villagers refuse to take care of her, leaving Kyoshi, then a young child, to be bullied by the other children and nearly die of neglect. While Kyoshi does eventually score a cushy servant's job, her terrible experiences have justifiably left her with a burning hatred of her parents for abandoning her, as well as severe trust and confidence issues.
    • Several years after the death of Avatar Kuruk, the Earth Kingdom has been unable to find his successor using their usual geomantic rituals. One day, two of Kuruk's companions, Jianzhu and Kelsang, notice a boy named Yun using the same Pai-Sho strategies Kuruk once used, down to the exact placement of the tiles. Jianzhu takes this as a sign that Yun is the new Avatar, and is further convinced when he learns that Yun is an earthbender.
      You'd Expect: That before doing anything official, Jianzhu would subject Yun to additional tests to confirm he is indeed the Avatar. Perhaps the one used in the Fire Nation to identify newborn firebenders, which is used on Kyoshi later on? Or the "Avatar toys" test used to identify the Air Nomad Avatar? Kyoshi may have taken one of said toys by this point, but there's no reason to assume a replica of it couldn't be made, seeing as the same test was able to identify Aang centuries later.
      Instead: Jianzhu publicly confirms Yun as the new Avatar, without getting any proof that the kid actually can bend more than one element.
      Result: Yun is falsely regarded as the new Avatar for about two years, bringing a modicum of peace during that time, but setting up a political shitstorm for when the truth inevitably comes out. Being the Avatar also becomes a key part of Yun's identity; him finding out it was all a lie plays a key part in his turn to villainy
    • Jianzhu's goal is to mentor Kuruk's successor into becoming a capable Avatar. Following the battle with the Fifth Nation at the South Pole, in which Kyoshi has thrown Yun's identity as the Avatar into doubt, he plans to have a spirit named Father Glowworm find out whether Kyoshi or Yun is the Avatar. But to do this, he needs samples of their blood.
      You'd Expect: Jianzhu would get the samples before going to see Father Glowworm. Or if the spirit needs to get the samples personally (or otherwise insists on it), Jianzhu would just explain to Yun and Kyoshi what's going to happen beforehand. It's not like they're bound to refuse; Yun's devoted to him, and Kyoshi's a dutiful servant. And even if one of them is too unnerved by Father Glowworm to go through with it, Jianzhu can still identify the Avatar after the other one is tested; if they're not the Avatar, process of elimination leaves the reluctant one as the only possibility.
      You'd Also Think: That Jianzhu would be a bit more open with Kelsang and the others about what his plans are.
      Instead: Jianzhu secretly takes both Kyoshi and Yun to see Father Glowworm, lies to them about what they're doing there, and uses an incense to drug them into not resisting the spirit's attempts to take their blood, seemingly forgetting that Yun has been trained to resist poisons.
      Result: Kelsang, Kyoshi's beloved father figure, becomes suspicious when he discovers the three of them have mysteriously gone missing, and goes off to search for them. Meanwhile, unaware of what's going on, Yun attempts to prevent Father Glowworm from taking Kyoshi's blood, and their struggles provoke the spirit into turning on the both of them once Kyoshi has been confirmed as the Avatar.
      You'd Then Expect: Jianzhu would try to save them both. Kyoshi may be the Avatar, but Yun is one of her best friends, and Jianzhu needs Kyoshi on his side.
      Instead: Jianzhu only saves Kyoshi, while leaving Yun to his fate. Yun is dragged away and seemingly killed, and Kyoshi is understandably pissed off with Jianzhu thanks to this.
      You'd Then Expect: That since Jianzhu is later shown to be a capable manipulator, he would figure out that Kyoshi deeply cared about Yun - if he didn't already know this - and act accordingly. Perhaps apologize for everything that's happened and claim that he had to prioritize the Avatar's safety over that of Yun, while at the same time keeping up a friendly, non-hostile act. And above all else, don't provoke the Person of Mass Destruction.
      Instead: He callously disregards Kyoshi's loss, tells her to not weigh the fate of her friend against the wellbeing of the world, refers to Yun as a "swindler", and tortures Kyoshi when she accuses him of murder and refuses to immediately accept him as her mentor.
      Result: Any chance of Kyoshi working willingly with Jianzhu is now well and truly shot. And if that wasn't enough, Kelsang shows up moments later and vows to never let Jianzhu have anything more to do with Kyoshi once he finds out what's happened. This drives Jianzhu to murder Kelsang, which causes Kyoshi to go into the Avatar State and nearly kill him. Kyoshi then flees into the Earth Kingdom with her heart set on killing Jianzhu, joins up with a group of outlaws so that she can learn how to do so, and gets roped into helping spring a fanatical and murderous criminal from imprisonment.
    • Granted, Jianzhu isn't the only Earth Kingdom sage with half a brain for most of his antics. In The Shadow of Kyoshi, Kyoshi has been trying to find Yun after he killed Jianzhu and vanished into the Earth Kingdom. It should be easy in theory since they're friends and when they last saw each other in the spirit world Yun saw Kyoshi being kidnapped, but Yun has been able to hide himself. She tries to get some assistance in tracking him.
      You'd Expect: The sages would realize that finding Yun and at the least knowing where he is would minimize the scandal that they were supporting the wrong Avatar candidate. If they know where he is, they can ascertain how he survived the spirit world and confine him in one area until they solve the mystery.
      Instead: Most of them have formed a schism. Some of the sages accuse Kyoshi of stealing Yun's glory and being a fake Avatar — something that she sometimes wishes were true because Yun would have been better at diplomacy and politics— while the ones that know she is the Avatar bury their heads in the sand and actively refuse to help her. They hope that in a few years Yun will be forgotten and they can all pretend that Jianzhu didn't have the biggest collective fuckup in Avatar history.
      Predictably: Kyoshi isn't forgetting her best friend anytime soon. It also turns out Yun wasn't satisfied with killing Jianzhu. He appears in the Fire Nation and starts causing havoc, to take "revenge" on everyone who supposedly lied to him about being the Avatar and would have let him die in the Spirit World. Cue a body count, destruction of priceless relics, and some Fire Nation politicians taking advantage of the chaos to further their agendas. Instead of minimizing the embarrassment, the sages only made the Yun scandal worse with their inaction. If they had helped Kyoshi find Yun a few months earlier, none of that would have happened.
  • Romance of the Three Kingdoms: He Jin is involved in a plot to eliminate the corrupt eunuchs who are essentially running the country. The eunuchs catch wind of the plan and coerce his sister, the Dowager Empress, to summon him to the Imperial Palace for a chat. His allies see through the trap and tell him not to go.
    You'd Expect: He Jin to decline the invitation. He's survived numerous attempts on his life from the eunuchs. He also knows that they have spies everywhere; even if it's really for a chat, there's a good chance the secret plan might get compromised.
    Instead: He goes to the Imperial Palace anyway, but allows his allies to give him an armed escort. A guard tells him to leave his escort outside the city. He proudly marches in rather than insisting on them following him. He's promptly hacked to pieces by the eunuchs.
    • Then there's Zhang Fei, youngest of the Peach Garden Oath Brothers and a constantly violent drunk. He volunteers to guard the city of Xiapi while his brothers go off on business. Liu Bei agrees on the conditions that Zhang Fei stay sober and not abuse his own men.
      You'd Expect: Zhang Fei would obey the request immediately.
      Instead: Zhang Fei holds a feast that night and gets mighty drunk. During the feast, he gets into an argument with one of his soldiers, Cao Bao, and has him flogged. Cao Bao sulks back to his son-in-law, Lu Bu, who unleashes holy hell on the city. Zhang Fei is too drunk to stop the attack and can only retreat.

    Literature S-Z 

  • Saving Francesca, by Melina Marchetta: Francesca has spent a year in a constant state of BSOD and has been slowly coming to terms with the fact that her old friends are bitches and her new friends are much better. She celebrates her birthday with her new friends and has a great time. However, when she sees her old friends, they ask her what she did for her birthday and Francesca, not wanting them to mock her new friends, says 'Nothing'. One of her new friends overhears this.
    You'd Expect that as hurt as she was, they'd give Francesca a chance to explain why she said that.
    Instead they immediately call her a bitch and turn against her, and poor Francesca ends up running off to Woy Woy because she can't handle the stress.
  • In Saving The World and Other Extreme Sports, Max decides to have Dr. Martinez surgically remove a microchip inside her arm to get rid of the Voice, knowing that she could risk losing the ability to use one of her hands. So Max decides to go through with the procedure, and lo and behold her left hand goes slack. Not only that, but guess what? THE VOICE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CHIP IN THE FIRST PLACE! Max just gave up a perfectly good hand.
  • Scarlett: the authorized sequel to Gone with the Wind, Rhett after biding his time divorces Scarlett when she leaves his family after they sleep together on a beach and she visits her Irish cousins. And to seal the deal, he marries Anne Hampton, a girl from his town who is like a Replacement Goldfish for Melanie Wilkes. Several years pass, during which he visits Scarlett in Ireland and she has their third child together — Bonnie survived to the age of six while Scarlett's second one miscarried — but doesn't tell him because she correctly guesses that he'd take Cat away from her due to liking kids and due to their bad history. After all, the last time she was pregnant with Rhett's child, he insinuated that it was Ashley's while knowing it was his, and the ensuing argument led to Scarlett tumbling down the stairs, miscarrying, and nearly dying. Anne loses her first baby with Rhett, and dies having his second one who lives a short while. Rhett decides to go back to Ireland to reconcile with Scarlett, only to find that due to him pushing her away that she's marrying Lord Fenton of England.
    You'd Expect: Rhett would go to Scarlett as soon as possible and talk things out with her. Just because he's acted entitled about their relationship before doesn't mean that he has the right to do so at any point. They've both been awful to each other over the years, and she has a point when she thinks that he's a hypocrite for moving on from her and then judging her for doing the same.
    Instead: Rhett sits on his butt Drowning My Sorrows about Anne and the baby, and on encountering Scarlett insults her while he's obviously drunk. He sobers up just in time to rescue her and Cat from a confrontation between the English soldiers and her Irish tenants, which nearly gets all three of them killed.
    The Result: Scarlett at first is unwilling to hear anything he says, but has been so desperate to have Rhett again that when she learns he's a widower tries to ride as fast as she can to him. Then after they have some time to talk, while hiding out in Cat's treehouse, she calls him out for divorcing her and marrying someone else when he was away, instead of coming to her and talking upfront. Rhett suffers a Jerkass Realization that he abandoned Scarlett while she was pregnant —and kept making fun of her for her professed affection in the ensuing years when checking on her in Ireland— though in turn he is angry that she hid that she had his child.
  • A Series of Unfortunate Events has a number of examples:
    • In the very first book, The Bad Beginning, the children go to see Mr. Poe to share how terrible living with Count Olaf has been for them. Namely he keeps them all in one room (with one bed), gives them a number of terribles chores daily, has terrible friends, is drunk often and recently struck Klaus on the face.
      You'd expect: Mr. Poe, after hearing such terrible circumstances, to have second thoughts about Count Olaf. Not to mention given his unhealthy obsession with their fortune they are to inherit at adulthood that he directly expressed in front of Mr. Poe when the children were first dropped off, that perhaps the children would be better off with another guardian.
      Instead: Mr. Poe merely tells the children with little sympathy that Count Olaf is their guardian and his parenting methods are his own business. It isn't until Count Olaf tries to gain access to the Baudelaire fortune by secretly marrying Violet, that Mr. Poe finally sees Count Olaf for what he really is and has the children removed from his care.
    • In book 10, The Grim Grotto, the hook-handed man is revealed to be Fernald, Fiona's brother. They reunite when Count Olaf captures the little submarine that Fiona's stepfather owns, and he sends the residents to the brig including a deathly-ill Sunny and the other Baudelaires. While they're happy to see each other, Fiona has a lot of questions. The last time she saw her brother, he had normal hands, and he certainly wasn't working for Olaf. He tries to argue that he has his reasons. Then Violet brings out a newspaper clipping from The Daily Punctilio that accuses Fernald of arson, which she found in the cavern from earlier in the story. According to Lemony Snicket at the end of book 10, since the Daily Punctilio is full of lies, there is more to the story than simply a beloved family member turning traitor.
      You'd Expect: That Fernald would give his side of the story and what exactly happened that day. At the least, he can point out that the newspaper is known for getting basic details wrong and couldn't even get the Baudelaire names right when accusing them of murder. Fiona is also concerned that Sunny has been poisoned by Medusoid Mycelium and she can only save Sunny by getting back to her book; Fernald could at least pretend to feign concern about Sunny for his sister's sake.
      Instead: After a very long Beat, Fernald says that he still can't forget the fires from that day. He essentially admits that he was guilty, and tries to defend himself by pointing out the world isn't black and white, the Baudelaires also set fires, when they were undercover and hid their true identities from Olaf. What's more, he doesn't even say why he joined Olaf, only that the man's redeeming quality is his "nice laugh". He also blames Sunny for getting ill since the "baby" has always been getting the troupe into trouble.
      The Result: Fiona stares at him in disappointment, breaking down his excuses while the Baudelaires call him out for trying to defend his heinous actions. These include being complicit in arson and murder, kidnapping their friends the Quagmires,and framing them for murder. Fernald finally admits that he wants to leave Olaf's crew, with Fiona, and decides to help them escape. While he fails to get himself and Fiona away after Olaf catches them, and he lies that he recruited Fiona to save her from being locked up, Fernald does buy time for the Baudelaires to take the submarine to Briny Beach.
    • Mr. Poe in general is very incompetent at finding a guardian for the Baudelaires, coming to believe that they are delinquents and not the fact that a vengeful killer has been hunting them down for months on end to steal their fortune. It gets to the point where they run away from the Village of Fowl Devotees because they got framed for murder and the residents wanted them to stay put and burn three children at the stake. Justice Strauss, however, gets wind of the kids' location and sends a message to Mr. Poe that they will be at Briny Beach. She asks Mr. Poe to fetch them and get them to a safe spot where they can reunite and she can protect them.
      You'd Expect: His first response on seeing the kids again would be to remark his relief that they're safe, and he believes that they are innocent. He ought to have gotten them a lawyer who could easily disprove the flimsy evidence. Justice Strauss believes they're innocent and gave clear instructions out of guilt that she didn't protect the kids from Olaf.
      Instead: Mr. Poe says that he's glad to see them because the Baudelaire fortune has been gathering interest with no heirs around to use it. He chides them for the murder charges, and merely says he's taking them to the police station to "sort out the matter".
      The Result: The kids are done with Mr. Poe's bullshit. Violet politely tells him that they're not going anywhere with him, because they got instructions to enter a taxi instead from Quigley Quagmire. He tries to call after them to stop, but Sunny gives a very clear, "Goodbye."
  • Sherlock Holmes:
    • "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot": Holmes and Watson discover a hallucinogenic drug that drives people insane and then kills them.
      You'd Expect: That they would find some kind of medical setting in which they would make a controlled test of the substance. Granted, medical technology and test protocols at the end of the 19th/start of the 20th century would have been primitive and they would have had to travel all the way back to London to do it, but it would be entirely reasonable given the threat posed by the hallucinogen.
      Or: One would test it, and the other would wait outside in the fresh air and watch through the window.
      Instead: They test it on themselves, heating the substance on a lamp on a table in front of them while indoors, in order to watch the effects of the fumes on each other.
      As a result: The fumes from the very powerful hallucinogen fill the room in seconds and very nearly overpower and kill both of them, and only quick thinking by Watson and both of them rushing out into the open save their lives.

  • Shōnen Onmyōji: Guren gets mind-controlled by Ryuusai and ends up fatally wounding Seimei against his will. Then the shikigami arrive to observe the scene
    You'd Expect: The shikigami to go after Ryuusai and do him in for mind controlling Guren and convincing the latter to understand that it wasn't his fault. He was being mind controlled. He didn't intentionally do it, not on purpose! They'll understand, right?
    Instead: They outright assume Guren did it on purpose and, despite Seimei surviving, blame him for it without even bothering to ask him what really happened, and hold it over his head for freaking DECADES!!!
    The Result: Guren develops severe self-esteem issues and is completely shunned by the other shikigami despite Seimei's objections, even to the point of deriding Masahiro just for being friends with him!

  • Sisterhood Series by Fern Michaels:
    • The book Deja Vu reveals that Henry "Hank" Jellicoe's wife had recorded his misdeeds in a diary, and she told the "proper" authorities about this.
      You'd expect that the CIA, upon hearing this, would have Jellicoe shut down, arrested and be more than happy to use the diary to bring him down.
      Instead they took the diary, swept it all under the rug, and had her swear on a Bible that this was the only copy of the diary she had. She lied, of course, and had another copy in her possession. The CIA actually believed her, put her in Witness Protection Program, and apparently decided to use the diary in a bizarre attempt to keep Jellicoe in line. Take a wild guess on how well that attempt worked out!
  • Skeleton Crew: "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet":
    • Jane's writer husband has paranoia that mysterious beings called "THEM" will hurt his muse, called a Fornit. With that said, after he cuts off the electricity to the house, he agrees with his wife that having a maid would be a good idea on the condition that she doesn't clean his home office. The maid Gertrude has to bring her son Jimmy because he got kicked out of school, and he's an irascible six-year-old, and Jane says that's fine.
      You'd Expect: She would warn Reg about this arrangement, and make sure the spare key to his office is secured. He's a paranoiac to a fault, to the point where Jane's parents beg her to leave him and have paid for a bus ticket.
      Instead: Jane keeps this a secret. When she finds orange peels in Reg's office, despite Reg claiming to be allergic to oranges, she thinks it's weird but puts it out of mind.
      The Result: It turns out that Jimmy thought it was a good idea to sneak around his mother's workplace, filching the spare key to get into Reg's home office. The editor narrating the story lampshades this; he says that Jane herself admitted that she ought to have realized that Jimmy was sneaking into her husband's study after finding orange peels. That would have been the time to check and see where the spare key had gone.
    • Jimmy himself was Too Dumb to Live; he's established as being unruly but not stupid, given how sneaky he is. Somehow he thought it was a good idea to break into the one forbidden room where his mom is working, to eat and leave evidence there, as well as play there with a loud toy gun. When his mother and her employer come running into the room, they scream at him to get out of there. Soon after, Reg appears with a gun in his hand and with obvious murderous intent.
      You'd Expect: Jimmy would realize that if his mother is being hard on him, he needs to listen. She needs this job. Also, it's kind of obvious that Reg is holding a gun. Move and get out of there before Reg starts firing.
      Instead: He sticks out his tongue at Jane and Gertrude, and keeps firing at what he sees in the typewriter, ignoring a murderous Reg.
      The Result: This could have easily gotten his mother fired, and it's established that she is struggling as it is with him having been held back a year from first grade. As it is, the worst-case scenario happens; Reg tackles him and prepares to shoot Jimmy, since it seems Jimmy killed his muse Fornit named Rackne. All Jimmy can do is freeze in understandable mortal terror, and he screams when Jane gets shot in the head. He and his mother get shot while Gertrude goes Mama Bear and picks him up, with the bullet, fortunately, being nonfatal for either of them. Safe to say that afterward, Gertrude definitely loses her job because Jane is hospitalized for a serious head injury and Reg commits suicide, meaning that Jimmy costs his mother some valuable income. The editor says that even when Jimmy was old enough to testify, he couldn't explain why he thought it was a good idea. Jane theorizes that maybe the Them that Reg feared were real, but she also thinks it was possible that Reg's schizophrenia got the better of him.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • In the first book A Game of Thrones, Ned Stark has just discovered that Cersei is in an incestuous relationship with her brother, and that none of her children are Robert's, thus meaning none of them are eligible heirs to the throne. He also has strong reason to believe that Cersei had his foster father killed because said foster father had also discovered said relationship.
      You'd Expect: He'd either keep the matter under wraps until he gets a chance to tell Robert, and gather more evidence of his findings in the meantime. Or at the very least, make the matter known to additional members of his inner circle, so even if Cersei comes after him, the information is still available.
      Instead: He confronts Cersei with the accusation before informing anyone else or making any records of what he'd discovered, giving her ample chance to plot against him before the information comes to light.
      As A Result: When Robert is fatally wounded in a hunting accident, Ned is in no mood to tell him the truth, and a series of Lawful Stupid decisions on his end combined with plotting by Cersei result in him being executed.
    • Also in the first book, Bran, son of Ned and Catelyn Stark, is attacked by an obviously low-class and poor assassin with a small amount of money in his pockets and a dagger far more valuable than a dozen times the money he was paid.
      You'd Expect: They would be suspicious that the dagger was a plant, expecially given that the dagger's reputed owner has no discernable motive to perform such a senselessly violent act and is obviously too smart to leave such a blatant clue.
      Instead: They believe, even when it is pointed out how extremely likely it is a plant, that a man with no grudge with them and no motive to do them harm tried to clumsily and pointlessly kill their son, to the point of attempting to have him executed despite the near complete lack of evidence that he was involved in the killing or even had a reason to wish them harm, or indeed even dislike them.
      As A Result: The incident sparks open warfare between the Stark and Lannister families and plunges Westeros into chaos.
    • Related to the above: Joffrey pays a random peasant a bag of silver to assassinate Bran.
      You'd Expect: The peasant to just take the money and run. Not only is assassinating Bran an obvious suicide mission, but the guy who ordered the hit is clearly crazy (and also twelve years old) and ethically screwed. His employer is heading south — he probably won't return north for years, if at all — and has no possible way of extracting retribution on him if he does a runner.
      Instead: He actually tries to do it.
      Unsurprisingly: He fails, and dies in the attempt.
    • In the second book, A Clash of Kings, Ser Alliser Thorne arrives at court to ask for more troops, to guard the wall of the north against a coming invasion of the living dead. He brings an animated severed hand as proof. But due to their strong mutual dislike of each other, Tyrion delays seeing him, unaware of how crucial the information he brings is.
      You'd Expect: Alliser to show people the irrefutable proof he brought with him (an animated dead hand!) to hurry them up into letting Tyrion know that he really needs to listen to what Alliser has to say.
      Instead: Alliser just hangs around the court and grumbles about being kept waiting until his irrefutable evidence has decomposed into nothing more than a normal skeletal hand, leaving Tyrion no reason to believe him and making the whole series take a far worse course.
    • Also from A Clash of Kings, Theon Greyjoy is sent as an envoy to his father, Balon Greyjoy, who makes it abundantly clear that he's not going to help them out of disrespect.
      You'd Expect: Theon would accept that his father, who he hasn't seen in ten years, doesn't care about him and isn't worth impressing.
      Instead: Theon immediately defects to Balon's side, earning the wrath of Robb Stark and his large army after he pretends to kill Robb's brothers.
      Also: He is brought a prisoner, Reek, who works for Ramsay Snow, and is said to be a necrophiliac serial killer.
      You'd expect: Theon would have him locked up and disregard anything he says.
      Instead: Theon takes him on as an adviser, digging himself deeper into trouble. Reek then turns out to be Ramsay himself in disguise, who captures Theon and takes him home to the Dreadfort.
    • In the third book, A Storm of Swords, Robb Stark hears of his home's fall and the (faked) deaths of his younger brothers. In his grief, he sleeps with the young lady of the castle he'd just captured, and falls in love with her.
      You'd Expect: Honor Before Reason is the Starks' unofficial motto and Fatal Flaw in this series; Robb's honour as a king demands that he stick to his promises and forsake the girl he loves to do his duty and uphold his promise to marry a Frey girl.
      Instead: Robb decides that Jeyne's honor as a maiden is more important than his honor as a king and immediately marries her, earning fifty men (none of whom are actually loyal to him) and alienating the thousands of Frey knights and soldiers he won with his original marriage alliance. The Freys promptly turn on him and murder him soon afterwards for dishonoring them (and more importantly, being on the losing side), and later books reveal Jeyne's family, with urging by Lord Tywin Lannister, used her to try and drive a wedge between Robb and the notoriously opportunistic Freys.
    • In the same book, Rickard Karstark decides to execute two young Lannister boys as retribution for the apparent deaths of Bran and Rickon Stark. The penalty for murder is death, but Rickard Karstark is a kinsman of Robb Stark because the Karstarks are a branch of the Stark family, and the Karstarks make a major component of Robb Stark's forces.
      You'd Expect: Robb Stark to find some manner of doing justice that doesn't offend the Karstarks, such as sending Rickard Karstark to Riverrun or one of the other castle under his control to atone for his crime, and having one of the other Karstarks take command of their forces in his place. He could diplomatically explain that he was being merciful and understanding to a kinsman, given the nature of the crime that had been committed.
      Instead: He chooses Honor Before Reason (yet again) and has Rickard Karstark executed, despite Rickard's reminders that both of them are related. Because Robb killed his own relative, he comes a "kinslayer" and therefore despicable under Westerosi custom.
      As A Result: The substantial Karstark forces desert him leaving him perilously short on troops, which makes the previously mentioned alliance with the Freys all the more necessary.
  • Song of Solomon
    • Macon Dead II orders his son Milkman to steal a bag of what he thinks is gold from his sister Pilate. Milkman and Guitar go to do so.
      You'd Expect: They would open the bag first to make sure it has a treasure. Milkman and Macon II know that Pilate is a bit of a Cloud Cuckoolander, so it's best to err on the side of caution.
      Instead: They just put it in their car.
      The Result: A cop pulls them over, and they find the bag has a skeleton in it. Pilate puts in a big act of how the bones belong to her (nonexistent) husband so that her nephew isn't arrested on suspicion of being a murderer. Macon II goes Never My Fault and call Pilate crazy.
    • Milkman Dead finds out that his best friend Guitar is part of a cult that kills white men to avenge one of their own killed. He recognizes that his older sister First Corinthians is dating one of the guys. First Corinthians has finally gotten a job at the age of forty, as a maid. Her twin sister Magdalena is very happy about this.
      You'd Expect: He would tell First Corinthians, discreetly, and let her make the decision. Their dad is abusive and controlling towards everyone in the family, even Milkman to a minor extent. We see Milkman later has a point that the Seven Days are just killing disproportionately, so First Corinthians has the right to know.
      Instead: He tells their father, and decides to spend the rest of the week drunk.
      The Result: Macon Dead II goes overboard in forcing Corrie to break up with her first boyfriend, and makes her quit her job which had nothing to do with it. Lena summons Milkman to her room, smacks him hard, and gives him a What the Hell, Hero? about making decisions for his older sister who is an adult and free to live her life. She also kicks him out of the house, saying he's no longer "pissing" on them. Lena only forgives Milkman somewhat when Corrie makes the decision to move out, live with said boyfriend, and get her job back.
  • The Spirit Thief: Sten, a Blood Knight obsessed with defeating the wielder of the Heart of War, loses a fight with said man (a fella named Josef) and, because his need to fight Josef caused him to abandon the job he was supposed to be doing, gets kicked out of the League of Storms.
    You'd expect: Sten realizes victory isn't happenning and returns to the life of a successful gladiator he once was. Or: Sten decides he's obviously not good enough, so he trains with his own magic sword and challenges Josef later. Or: Sten threatens Nico to get Josef to fight him again in an environment more conductive to a duel than a cramped barn. Or: Sten does literally anything other than what he actually did.
    Instead: Sten goes to the Master of the Dead Mountain - the demon he knows, being a former League knight, possesses people who accept his "aid" - and... accepts his aid. End result: Sten loses his soul and individuality, world almost ends, Josef still kills him.

  • Sorcery!: The Analander finds a box in the Elvin village that contains a dangerous poisonous scorpion along gold coins and a key.
    You'd expect: The Analander to simply pick up the box, turn it around to drop what is inside, and let the scorpion run away, unable to sting him since he wears boots and pants. Or at least stab the scorpion inside with his sword.
    But instead: The Analander is only given the option to manually pick up objects from the box with his bare hands.
    The Result: He puts himself at risk of being stung by the scorpion each time, with serious damage.

  • Spock's World
    • Mahak's grandam arranges a marriage between Mahak and T'Thelaih, who has Psychic Powers that allow her to kill people with her mind alone.
      You's Expect: She would treat them well and use her not-inconsiderable powers of persuasion to gain their loyalty, winning herself a bloodline of faithful assassins.
      Instead: When T'Thelaih gets pregnant, she decides that Mahak has served his purpose, and has him killed, which T'Thelaih can feel as soon as it happens. She proceeds to taunt T'Thelaih about it to her face, and threaten to use her unborn child as a weapon. T'Thelaih, of course, kills her on the spot and wipes out her entire family.
  • Spy School Series:
    • Throughout Evil Spy School, Ben gradually finds information pointing to SPYDER's plot, using missiles to blow up all of New York's tunnels and bridges while using their private construction crew to reconstruct the bridges, making them millions in the process while undercover in SPYDER's headquarters. Ben couldn't understand any of the evidence pointing towards the scheme, but about halfway through, he gets in contact with someone who could decode the evidence, Erica Hale.
      You'd Expect: Ben to tell Erica all the information he gathered.
      Instead: Ben tells her practically nothing about what he learned, only telling her about a safe in SPYDER's control center.
      As A Result Erica instructs Ben to use an outright moronic plan described below to bust open the safe.
    • Later on, Erica tosses Ben an electronic safecracker to crack the safe's password. Ben does as expected, he finds a chance to break in the control center and starts up the safecracker. Sadly, the device fails at its job. Erica "prepared" for this situation by giving Ben a back-up plan: blowing up the freaking safe.
      You'd Expect: Ben to ignore this suicidal move and start up the safecracker again.
      Instead: Ben detonates the safecracker.
      As A Result: Ben barely escapes the compound alive. Hundreds of armed agents sprint towards Ben with no signs of mercy. If is wasn't for a bulldozer, Ben would have kicked the bucket right then and there.
      Compounding It: Even after breaking out of SPYDER's base, Ben still doesn't tell Erica about the information.
    • Using their only lead, thanks to Erica's and Ben's stupidity, the duo, alongside Alexander and Cyrus, travel to Sandy Hook to check its missiles. When they arrive, they find dynamite stuck on all the missiles, thanks to SPYDER. Cyrus's partner ambushes the spies on the island, thinking they're the ones who are blowing up the missiles.
      You'd Expect: Cyrus's partner would question why Cyrus would return back to the island with hundreds of active missiles.
      Instead: His partner ignores Cyrus's words, triggering a chase with the CIA, NYPD, NJPD, Homeland Security, and the Coast Guard that almost ends in Ben's death.
  • The Stand:
    • There is this soldier guy named Charles Campion, who is on sentry duty in an army lab making bioweapons. The lab suffers a containment breach.
      You'd Expect: Bioweapons are made here. Really nasty and dangerous diseases. It is better to lock yourself down with them. Your death will be nothing compared to the many lives that could be saved by following security protocol.
      Instead: Campion dude runs off with his wife and daughter, while already coughing suspiciously.
      As A Result: Cue the world-ending pandemic.
    • You had to isolate those people from the Texan small town where Campion dude cropped up again on the display. While everyone is one by one dying of The Plague, one guy named Stu Redman isn't even sick. This guy is the first case of The Immune to the disease ever found.
      You'd Expect: They know too well that he is maybe the source of a cure, and do everything to ensure his cooperation. Like telling him about the fate of his friends and neighbors, and that everything is falling apart outside. Could make it personal for this dude named Stu, and he is contained anyway.
      Instead: They try to hide from him what is really going on.
      As A Result: Stu is unable to trust the researchers. The pandemic only goes away when only immune people are still alive - what aren't many. After two weeks. A cure is never found.
  • Star Wars: Bloodline, Ransolm Casterfo is a politician that misses the Empire but hates Darth Vader. Leia butts heads with him but comes to grips with the fact that he makes legitimate points. Eventually, Casterfo finds out that Vader was Leia's biological father, and Leia didn't tell anyone. It's actually revealed that Leia didn't because she's had trouble reconciling that the man who tortured her, blew up Alderaan, and kidnapped her friends, helped sire her.
    You'd Expect: Casterfo would know the kind of woman Leia is, that she wouldn't be her father. He should go talk to her about why she hasn't told anyone.
    Instead: He outs her to the Senate, causing her to lose credibility and her status. Leia gives him a What the Hell, Hero? for ever thinking she was like her father and not coming to talk to her beforehand.
    The Result: By the time Casterfo realizes he fucked up, it's too late; the aristocrat Lady Carise that told him Leia's secret frames him for a crime, and sentences him to death on finding him no longer useful. Leia does her best to save Casterfo, but thanks to the credibility he ruined, there's nothing she can do except take down Carise. Casterfo notes the irony that she's the only one who believes his innocence, and he destroyed her. And this leads to the downfall of the New Republic, with Leia having to form a small resistance.
  • "The Stupids": The children's series of books by Harry Allard and James Marshall were about a family — the Stupids — who are so, well, stupid, that they are unable to complete or understand the most simple concepts and tasks. The books, all containing numerous "What an Idiot" situations, included "The Stupids Step Out" (1974), "The Stupids Have a Ball" (1978), "The Stupids Die" (1981) and "The Stupids Take Off" (1989). In 1996, a movie called "The Stupids," starring Tom Arnold, was based on the books.
  • Swear to Howdy: Rusty Cooper's mother works at his sister's school. Sissy is a constantly failing student, and overhears their mother having to photocopy her teacher's upcoming civil war exam because the questions and answers were printed upside down. She and her friend Amanda Jane, whose brother Joey is best friend with Rusty, steal the exam papers to cheat and ace the test because their parents promised them rewards. In Sissy's case she wants a new outfit, and Amanda Jane wants a car.
    You'd Expect: They would cover their tracks by actually studying, and scheming to do less than perfect, to pass rather than get an A. And they would deliberately get different questions wrong on test day.
    Instead: Sissy and Amanda Jane do none of this. They both ace the tests, and get the same two questions wrong. Rusty would love to bust them after realizing that Sissy would never ace a test unless she cheated, but he has no proof and besides which Sissy blackmails him about his frog accidentally getting into her room.
    The Result: Their teacher is no fool. He talks to Mrs. Cooper, pointing out the evidence that Sissy and Amanda Jane cheated by stealing from the trash due to their academic record and the two questions. Mrs. Cooper comes home in a fury, having barely saved her job, and proves that Sissy cheated by asking her questions on the Civil War that even her father knows, and Sissy only answers one of them correctly. Mr. Cooper returns Sissy's reward clothes, though Amanda Jane manages to keep her car. While Mrs. Cooper keeps her job, Sissy and Amanda Jane are disgraced at school and forced to take a makeup exam.
  • The Sword of Truth: In the first book, Richard must 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. Fortunately, 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. The artifact falls into Richard's hands, and it's revealed that he's 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 man destined to save the world from the true Big Bad, who appears 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, in the name of his friends, and such objectionist principles as life, freedom and liberty. End of story.
    Instead: He forgets all about it 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. But that doesn't explain why he didn't try to find this out sooner.
    • In another example, the Chimes, beings that will drain the world of Additive Magic and only someone who can command Subtractive Magic can do anything to them. Zedd has some knowledge of them and he is right next to Richard. Richard is also the Chosen One and is a War Wizard, has both Additive and Subtractive magic, his Gift acts through emotion and need, and is the Seeker of Truth.
      You'd Expect: Zedd would inform Richard of everything he knew about the Chimes and work out ways to defeat them.
      Instead: Zedd lies to Richard and tells him that it's a different creature and sends him on a wild goose chase for a fake solution and heaps on emotional baggage to drive him while Zedd goes by himself in a weakened condition to try to dupe the Chimes with his soul in a Senseless Sacrifice.
  • In the dark romance novel Tears of Tess by Pepper Winters, Tess has just escaped from the man holding her captive, with a GPS locator still strapped on her ankle. She flags down a car, and the driver lends her a knife.
    You'd Expect her to cut the GPS off and throw it out the window. Plot dictates that her captor must be able to track her down, but he later demonstrates that he knows who the driver of the car she's in now is, and his bodyguard is pursuing Tess when she gets in the car, so he could quite easily recognise the license plate, or the driver could simply not have a knife.
    Instead, she cuts off the GPS, and then puts it on the floor of the moving vehicle that she is still riding in. This is never portrayed as a stupid thing to do, either; when her captor inevitably finds her, both of them act like keeping the GPS with her was a perfectly reasonable thing to do and his tracking her with it was some sort of miracle or act of genius.
  • Tease: A big one that comes up in retrospect. Brielle and Sara launched a campaign of harassment against Emma. (Emma "stole away" Sara's boyfriend Dylan, who tells Sara that it's not Emma's fault and to be nice to her.) They get help from a boy named Tyler who slept with her and thus is guilty of statutory rape.
    You'd Expect: If the girls are going to be this cruel, aim to cover their tracks and go for Plausible Deniability. It's established that Brielle is not an idiot; Sara notes that she does well in school when she puts in the effort at least.
    Instead: They create a bunch of social media, including a fake Facebook page and Twitter account, purely to taunt Emma. Some of their pranks invite visits to the principal's office. She tells them off and bans them from the school dance as punishment.
    Predictably: After Emma hangs herself, her parents have known for a while that Brielle, Sara, and Tyler were the instigators. Dylan is also investigated, and this causes him to lose his baseball scholarship due to the scandal. He never forgives Emma for this, saying I Warned You when she talks with him months after Emma dies and pointing out that he wasn't the one that posted that much evidence after she says how "lucky" he was to get acquitted. Emma's parents create a paper and electronic trail, one which includes the social media pages, and builds their case. A few days after the school finds out about Emma's death, the tragedy goes viral and becomes national news that she was bullied into suicide, and CNN grabs screencaps of the Facebook pages while talking about why girls are this "toxic". This turns Sara, Brielle, and Tyler into social pariahs and Brielle's parents punish her by pulling her out of school, sending her to home tutoring, and refusing to let her speak with Sara for legal reasons. In the meantime, Emma's parents have enough evidence to file a civil suit against Emma's bullies and incarcerate them. The Surprisingly Realistic Outcome is that when Sara's family has to hire a lawyer, the latter admits they can't enter a plea of innocence with all of the social media and the roses prank. They have to admit that Sara and the others are guilty, do a plea bargain to avoid jail time, and make a statement in the courtroom. Sara also knows that even if any of them were sorry, their reputations have been indelibly damaged — she and Brielle will always be attached to the bullying and Tyler saw as a rapist. Dylan is still somewhat blamed.
  • To Kill a Mockingbird: So much that it's lampshaded by Atticus and the sheriff at the end of the book. Even though a biased jury convicted the one-armed plaintiff Tom Robinson for raping and beating up Bob Ewell's daughter, Atticus proved that Bob was the more likely suspect. Bob feels humiliated and swears revenge on Atticus. The sheriff is good friends with Atticus, with Tom Robinson's boss rallying to protect Tom's widow after he dies ostensibly escaping from jail. Also, Atticus is a crackshot and shown not to be afraid to enter the fray if there is real danger.
    You'd Expect: Bob would... lie low. As Jem bitterly puts it, and Scout muses about how adults suck and are hypocrites, he got away with it. If he cared about his reputation anyway, he wouldn't be letting his kids go to school with mice in their hair.
    Instead: Bob Ewell, while drunk on Halloween, tries to murder Atticus's kids after he had got off scot-free for abusing and raping his daughter. Fortunately, he didn't succeed, owing to Scout's large ham costume providing impromptu armor and Arthur Radley saving their bacon.
    The Result: Even though it was dark, the kids survive the encounter and would have been able to testify. The sheriff has to ask And Then What? because while an all-white jury could convict a black man, they'd have to be complete idiots, in turn, to look the other way about a white man attempting to murder two children and breaking one of their arms. Atticus is more relieved that the kids aren't (badly) hurt and shaken at the thought that Jem would have to testify since at first Atticus thinks that Jem killed Mr. Ewell in self-defense, but even he is going You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me! because he asks rhetorically Who Would Be Stupid Enough?. Well, Bob Ewell was.
  • In Trickster's Queen, a group of rebels are trying to overthrow the government of the Copper Isles and put a queen of their own blood on the throne. They are following a very specific prophecy, and eventually as it becomes clear that the time for revolution is close, they find that they have two candidates, a pair of sisters: Sarai, the older sister, a passionate, beautiful and headstrong girl who gets along very well with people and who is widely loved; and her younger sister Dove, a quiet, calm, incredibly intelligent girl who isn't much of an extrovert, but who can befriend anyone and hold her own in any conversation. With the time at hand, they need to pick their candidate and start altering their campaigns to fit her.
    You'd Expect that the rebels would look at both sisters, examine their prophecy, realise that 'wise and beloved' doesn't entirely apply to Sarai, and instead redirect their focus to Dove, who everyone agrees is smart and logical and makes a much better candidate.
    You'd Also Expect that somebody would realise that if you plan to put someone on a throne, but you don't trust them enough to tell them your plans for their future, then maybe it's not a good idea to try putting them on the throne.
    Instead, the rebels decide that Sarai is obviously who the prophecy means, because she's incredibly beautiful and everyone loves her. They hold this opinion despite the fact that Sarai is continually headstrong and refuses to use her brain in even the smallest situations (such as not telling everyone in earshot that her house is exceptionally well-guarded, so nobody suspects that the residents are planning something), and in the end, Sarai elopes, believing that the rebels cannot win. Thankfully, Dove is ready to take up the mantle.
  • 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 Expect: The bad guys, who were only weeks away from irrevocably seizing power from Stile/Blue and their allies when the kids disappeared, 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 to harm Flach and Nepe's mothers if they didn't follow their instructions. This threat negates the deal with their fathers, Mach and Bane, who tracked the kids down by listening in on their mental connection. Flach gets the word out about the threat; And with Mach and Bane freed from their word, they quickly revolted against the Contrary Citizens and Adverse Adepts, and the good guys finally turn the tide.
  • War and Democide Never Again: John Banks is selected to be one of two people sent back in time to change history to his liking.
    You'd Expect: Him not to tell a soul.
    Instead: After being sent back, he writes down everything that he and his partner change about the past in a diary. So is it really that surprising that the villains from a Bad Future get hold of it, and so are one step ahead of his plans?
  • Water Margin:
    • Lei Heng, a constable and future Liangshan hero, attends a performance of a travelling singer named Bai Xiuying. He realizes that he left his money at home, so he's unable to tip her. Xiuying and her father, Bai Yuqiao, start insulting him. Eventually, someone in the audience stands up for Lei Heng and vouches for his good character.
      You'd Expect: The two would be more understanding and allow him to get his money; with an escort if need be.
      Instead: Bai Yuqiao lets loose one final insult. Lei Heng promptly beats him up.
    • During the Fang La campaign, two of the Liangshan heroes, Shan Tinggui and Wei Dingguo, are assigned to help Lu Junyi capture an enemy city. They see that the city gates are open and not a soldier in sight...
      You'd Expect: Shan Tinggui and Wei Dingguo would smell the obvious Shmuck Bait.
      Instead: The two charge in full steam ahead. They fall for the enemy's Pit Trap within the gate and are killed by waiting Mooks.
  • Watership Down: note 
    • Fiver and Hazel see a notice board, and Fiver gets an overwhelming sense that something terrible is going to happen to Sandleford warren. They both go to warn the Threarah note  of the impending danger.
      You'd Expect: Them to mention the obviously human-made notice board so they had some physical evidence to back up their claim.
      Instead: The Threarah proclaims Fiver to be a fraud and they fail to convince him of the danger, leading to the eventual destruction of the warren.
      However: It is later revealed that the Threarah did consider the possibility that they were right, since he knew some rabbits were seers. He simply felt that many more lives would be lost in any attempt to evacuate the warren, so it would be best to sit tight, avoid panic, and hope that any danger would only affect a few.
    • The group of rabbits have come to a new warren and plan to live there, but Fiver senses that there is something deeply wrong with the place and refuses to go inside. There is also a suspicious lack of predators around, and fresh food is left out for the rabbits every morning. The warren also has surprisingly few residents, and the rabbits who live there quickly change the subject every time someone asks a question beginning with 'where'.
      You'd Expect: The rabbits would pay attention to all the warning signs, since they were only on this quest because of Fiver's visions to begin with, and leave the warren before anything bad happened.
      Or At Least: One of the rabbits would stay with Fiver, who, as one of the smallest and physically weakest rabbits in the group, would be nearly defenceless against any predators which do appear.
      Instead: The group refuse to listen to Fiver's concerns, instead insulting him and trying to force him to come with them into the warren. It then turns out that the warren is being farmed, and the farmer sets snares for the rabbits so he can sell their meat and skins. The group realise this when Bigwig is caught in a snare and nearly dies.
    • Woundwort and Co. break into the warren at Watership Down, and see Fiver lying on the floor unconscious. Woundwort concludes that he is dead.
      You'd Expect: Woundwort to rip him apart to make sure he's actually dead, and not unconscious or trying to trick them.
      Instead: Fiver wakes up, and manages to scare Vervain out of the warren.
  • The Wayfarer Redemption:
    • Isfrael's dealings with Qeteb in Crusader.
      You'd Expect: No matter how much Isfrael resents Axis and his family, he would know better than to make a Deal with the Devil, especially an Omnicidal Maniac devil who has repeatedly betrayed his word to others and has a disdain for all life.
      Instead: Isfrael invokes Qeteb, and gladly agrees to turn over everyone in Sanctuary in exchange for preserving the Avar race.
      As a Result: Qeteb and his demons break into Sanctuary, kill all the remaining Star Gods apart from Axis and Azhure, and are only prevented from killing the rest of the survivors of Tecendor including the Avar because of Urbeth's timely intervention. Isfrael is also brutally raped in both mind and body for his treachery.
    • After the events of Threshold, in which Magi awaken an Eldritch Abomination that twists them into its puppets and attempts to end the world, the Threshold pyramid was abandoned and the Magi who worshiped it were all killed.
      You'd Expect: People would take note of this and not return to the location, much less try to complete the project via the same methods as before.
      Instead: New Magi with the exact same Functional Magic reemerge and not only complete the pyramid, but end up waking up two new abominations that try to destroy the world.
  • Whateley Universe: There's quite a lot of this going on there.
    • Reverend Darren Englund, one of the school's administrators, has discovered that there is a student on campus who is actually half lust demon and who is also part Great Old One. He decides that this student is a clear danger to humanity, and must be destroyed at all costs before she can harm or kill anyone else (she has to kill to feed, and has accidentally murdered people before getting the hang of her powers).
      You'd Expect that he'd do his best to confirm that this student is evil before deciding to kill her.
      Instead he decides that anything who happens to be part demon or Great Old One is evil by nature and can never be anything else. If he'd actually did his research, he would have found that the student in question loves life and Earth and doesn't want to destroy or harm anything, she just wants to live and grow- and she respects the opinions and rights of others.
      • Englund forms a plan to take her out: he gets the assistance he needs from the Syndicate, a global organisation of villains. However, he lies to them, telling them that they're hunting a monster his students can't handle, so they need some manpower. It's set to go down on Halloween night, when the students are having a party.
        You'd Expect that he'd realise that the jig would very quickly be up, as the student in question would be celebrating with her friends, not walking around outside, and that he'd need to either tell the truth or come up with a decent lie.
        You'd Also Expect that as the Syndicate are a giant organisation of villains, Englund would be very careful of betrayals, desertions and so on.
        Instead the entire plan gets hijacked by a super villain who was never part of the plan in the first place, who uses it as a way to target specific students, including the one Englund wants dead. After that, it all goes to hell, ending with hundreds of injuries,many traumatized students, one dead teacher and dozens of brutally maimed or killed security guards, a (possibly mortally) wounded Super Villain, piles and piles of dead Syndicate soldiers, and Englund in the shit with his target alive and well.
    • Migraine, a young psychic student, decides that her life is terrible and she wants to make it better. She manages to screw around with the minds of others so she gets to live with some new students who don't know her, and as a result gets some friends who are very protective of her despite the fact that all she does is use them. However, that isn't enough: being somewhat plain, she fixates on the idea of becoming an Exemplar (incredibly attractive super-human), and when one of her 'friends' develops a devise that could do it, she starts forming an elaborate plan that will test the devise and eventually give her a chance to use it herself.
      You'd Expect that as the machine is a devise (which are by definition products of mad science and inherently unstable), Migraine would be very, very careful and not take any chances.
      Instead she decides to just go all in and bets on everything working out for her. Unfortunately, it doesn't, and she ends up having a mental breakdown and is transferred to a psych ward.
    • Aspiring Alpha Bitch Solange, who is secretly an Avatar (that is, has the ability to capture and use the powers of spirits) traps Jade's alter ego Jinn (it's a long story) and uses her to gain her powers, as well as give her additional psychic protection (because the second spirit makes her mind seem 'fuzzy' to telepaths).
      You'd Expect that Solange would realize that in effect kidnapping another student would get her into serious trouble, especially as Jinn continues to struggle inside her mind to break free.
      Instead, she decides to try use the mental protection from this to make a move on the leader of the Alphas, Manipulative Bastard and telepath Don Sebastiano, figuring getting him into bed would give her a leg up in the clique.
      Furthermore, In order to do this, she first has to get her rival, Hekate, out of town for the week, so she cuts a horrific deal with Thuban: he would arrange for the death of a relative of Hekate's, in exchange for Solange allowing him to have herself possessed so that Montana - whom she had strung along with the promise of sexual favors the previous year, only to turn on him later - could, in effect, rape her. She agrees to this, convinced her new psychic defenses could protect her from the possession.
      Meanwhile, Jinn continues to drive Solange crazy by possessing her in turn while she sleeps (including making her sign a confession to the kidnapping), slowly convincing her that she didn't need the spirit bond after all.
      In the end, not only did the protection fail to work against Sebastiano, who used his powers to pluck out her deepest personal secret and use it against her, when the time came to pay up for Thuban's agreement, Jinn harasses her to the point that she let's go of the spirit bond - only to find that she couldn't retrieve it. She is forced to endure gang-rape while unable to control her body for a full weekend.
    • Jobe Wilkins, son of a major Super Villain and Teen Genius, invents a serum that can turn anyone into his idea of a perfect girlfriend. Because of how it works, the transformation is meant to be irreversible. Unfortunately, in the middle of a lab accident involving a deadly venomous spider, he injects himself with the serum by mistake, and begins to turn into a female Drow. After he fails in his attempts to reverse the effect, he turns to his arch-enemy, Carmilla (the aforementioned half-demon), and tries to make a deal with her to change him back.
      You'd Expect that he would go to his friend Nephandus, who has experience with demonic contracts, to arrange the agreement between them.
      Instead, he decides to use the Internet and his own formidable intelligence to make the deal, and misses it when Carmilla basically 'signs' the document with 'No way in Hell' written upside down. The Demon Queen of Lust completes his transformation into a woman, messes with Jobe's mind to make her attracted to men as well as women, and keeps his penis in a Lucite box on her mantelpiece as souvenir.
  • Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series has quite a few of these, but the thirteenth book, Towers of Midnight, contains a particularly moronic one. Aes Sedai are turning up dead within the White Tower, and the newly appointed Amyrlin, Egwene, is convinced it's the work of Messana and the Black Ajah. Her love interest Gawyn, however, isn't so sure and investigates on his own, gathering a lot of evidence that suggests the murders did not involve the One Power and were therefore the work of a non-channeler.
    You'd Think: Egwene would listen to his findings and at the very least consider that the murders were not the work of the Black.
    Instead: She completely dismisses everything he says, and even rebukes Gawyn for supposedly getting in her way.
    More Stupidity: This is despite the fact that Gawyn was actually attacked by one of the assassins and could therefore confirm they didn't use the Power.
    Even More Stupidity: Egwene eventually pisses Gawyn off so much he leaves the White Tower and only barely returns in time to stop three of the aforementioned assassins from murdering Egwene in her sleep.
  • Joyce Carol Oates's short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been": The main conflict takes place between Connie, a 15-year-old girl, and a young man named Arnold Friend, in her yard.
    You'd Expect: The instant that a stranger — the unwelcome visitor, Arnold — beckoned Connie outside, for Connie to immediately call the police and have the man ordered to leave or be arrested.
    Instead: That never happens (otherwise, we'd have no story). Connie spends the next half hour or so arguing with Arnold, with Arnold trying nicely — then not so nicely — to make her come with him. When Connie finally recognizes Arnold for who he is — a predatory creep who is probably in his mid-30s — and tries to call the police, Arnold has gotten into the house and taken the phone away from her. He also does other things to her, with the strong implication that she is raped. In the end, Connie is forced to leave with Arnold, her fate left unknown.
  • H. P. Lovecraft's novella "The Whisperer in Darkness":
    • The main character Wilmarth has been communicating with a scholar living in remote Vermont who has found significant evidence of a powerful alien species operating in the region who are very dangerous towards humans investigating them. His friend has constantly urged him not to visit, in case the aliens, or their human contacts, decide to deal with him too. Throughout the story, he receives increasingly frantic letters from his pen pal reporting that his house was getting attacked at night. Then, one day, he gets a letter from his friend reversing his position about the Aliens. His friend asks him to come to Vermont, on a train that would arrive at 10 at night, and to bring every bit of their correspondence.
      You'd Expect: That he'd be a little suspicious about the whole "sudden total reversal of attitude" thing, and maybe about the "bring all the proof to the heart of their territory" bit too, and not go. The fact that the last telegram has the "pen pal" misspell his own name should clue him in. Or at least make copies of everything he possibly could, and then some.
      Instead: He gets on a train that gets in during daytime, with all the evidence, and meets a fellow on the train. This fellow just happens to sound like a fellow in a recording of an evil ceremony with the aliens. The only reason the main character isn't kidnapped or killed is sheer luck.
    • From the opposite side, the scholar Akeley. He believes that the aliens should be left alone because he's afraid that if they were attacked by humans they would decide to just take over, and he intends to leave his home in Vermont to live with his son in California.
      You'd expect Him to not keep looking into these creatures, leave out any evidence he has that he knows they want for them to grab, and just move to California.
      Instead Not only does he gather information on them and record their meetings, he actually sends it on to Wilmarth. The same man who, up until this point, had been publicly denouncing claims that there was anything extraterrestrial in Vermont. Akeley also insists on staying in his house, even after his police dogs get killed, his mail intercepted and people start shooting at him. The only reason he doesn't die is because the aliens decide to put his brain in a jar to take to Yuggoth instead.
  • Wicked Lovely: Leslie decides to get a tattoo. She starts to feel uncomfortable around the owner of the shop, and the two kids running around are reacting like her getting the tattoo is the return of their savior. Even the owner tries to talk her out of it. When the owner starts with the process, she hears an evil laugh in her head.
    You'd Expect: She would opt out of it, pick a different tattoo or go to another shop.
    Instead: She goes along with it and becomes bound to Irial.
  • The Wind in the Willows: Mr. Toad doesn't have common sense among his M.O., which is lampshaded several times, including by himself when he's called out for his actions.
    • Toad develops an obsession with motor cars and driving them, but he has several crashes and fines by the police.
      You'd Expect: Toad to realize that he's a terrible driver. As the Water Rat says, Toad could hire someone who can teach him how to drive. He would have to pay his coach good wages, but he's more than rich enough for that to not be a problem, and the alternative would be to wreck several more motor cars and likely get himself seriously injured, or even killed.
      Instead: Toad remains convinced that he's a heaven-born driver, even when the evidence blatantly points to the contrary.
      As A Result: Come the springtime, his friends Mole, the Water Rat and Badger have to resort to forcibly placing him under unofficial house-arrest, realizing that his obsession has made him a danger to his own safety.
    • Toad manages to escape his "house-arrest" by tricking the Rat into believing he has fallen seriously ill. While eating a meal at an inn, he hears the all too familiar sound of a motor car approaching, and slips out to inspect it while the car's owners are eating. As Toad says, "there cannot be any harm in my only just looking at it", and he's right, but...
      You'd Expect: Toad to remember that he should go no further than inspecting the motor car. This particular car doesn't belong to him, and taking it out for a drive would be theft, which is illegal.
      Instead: "I wonder if this sort of car starts easily?" Next thing he knows, he's convicted as a criminal and sentenced to twenty years in a castle keep.
    • Toad manages to break out of prison with assistance from the gaoler's daughter, disguised as a washerwoman. On his way back home, he hears the sound of—you guessed it—a motor car, and steps forward to greet the drivers... only to realize that they're the exact same owners of the car he stole when his misadventures began, and that it's the exact same car. Fortunately, his washerwoman disguise means they don't recognize him, and he successfully persuades them to drive him home, since they were conveniently planning to pass by his home anyway.
      You'd Expect: Toad to keep a low profile until the journey is over. If they realize that he's the one who stole their motor car, things will not go at all well for him.
      Instead: Toad asks the driver to let him have a try at driving the motor car. He drives carefully enough at first, but exhilaration and hubris eventually take over, and he starts driving recklessly and outright boasts about his true identity.
      As A Result: The car's owners try to seize him, and it's only by driving their car into a pond that Toad manages to escape amidst the pandemonium.
      You'd Then Expect: Toad to privately revel in his victory while publicly keeping quiet about it.
      Instead: He reaches a distance... and then bursts into laughter about what he's done, and even sings loudly to himself about his own clevernessnote .
      As A Result: He hears a sound behind him, and sure enough, it's the car's chauffeur and two policemen running towards him. Toad makes a run for it while chastising himself, but it's only by running headlong into the river that he isn't caught and his escape isn't rendered All for Nothing.
  • Wilder Girls: Teddy's a nurse working within Camp Nash and is dealing with Byatt, who is one of the infectees from the Island and is still carrying the pathogen within her but he takes her out of her hospital bed and is being tempted by Byatt to come closer to her.
    You'd Expect: For Teddy to be firm with Byatt, to emphasize the fact that she is sick with the Tox and he can't get sick for the sake of not just the camp but the research efforts on a cure.
    Instead: He doesn't even put up much of a fight about it, letting Byatt kiss him, not only infecting him with the Tox but also breaking the quarantine and dooming the entirety of Raxter Island in the end.
  • The Will of the Empress: In this thirdquel to the Circle of Magic series, Empress Berenene is interested in her cousin Sandry due to the latter having inherited a substantial amount of estates in Berenene's country Namorn. She convinces Sandry to visit and potentially either convince her to stay or sign over the lands. Sandry's friends come, a few shellshocked from battle, and all are powerful mages. They'd thus be valuable assets. Sandry is less than inclined to stay at the moment or pursue courtship because she's busy being her uncle's manager at home, and she hates that Namorn has a law saying a man can kidnap a woman and force her to marry him under duress. She tries to bite off more than she can chew by managing her Namornese lands, and is horrified her parents left the lands in this state. The Empress thinks the kidnapping custom is no big deal, but Sandry makes a display of saving a woman from an abusive marriage and hiring her.
    You'd Expect: The Empress is doing well so far with her "catch more flies with honey than vinegar approach". She plays on Briar's attraction to her and love for her gardens, Daja getting involved with her courtesan, and so forth. Put out an order on the sly that no one touches Sandry or her friends, and play The Long Game to win her lands over.
    Instead: It's implied that Berenene allows Fin to attempt a kidnapping on Sandry, using her fear of the dark against her. She also orders one of her mages to magically push Tris down a flight of stairs to incapacitate her after the attempt fails. The one thing the kidnapper didn't anticipate is that Sandry has a telepathic bond with her adoptive siblings, and Tris comes roaring to the rescue with her storm powers.
    Predictably: When the four find out, it's a Relationship-Salvaging Disaster. Briar ends his courtship of the Empress, giving her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech for allowing Sandry to get kidnapped and showing No Sympathy about it and Daja reluctantly breaks up with said courtesan when she decides to return with Sandry to Vedris. Sandry decides to Take a Third Option with her Namorn lands and sell them to a cousin: her cousin Ambros and not Berenene. This ensures that Berenene lost favor with all four of them, and they all hold a long grudge.
  • The original Winnie the Pooh book and its Disney Animated Adaptation has the segment where Pooh eats all of Rabbit's honey. Rabbit has a front door and a back door.
    You'd Expect: Pooh to realize he's now clearly too fat to crawl out the front door and use the back door.
    Instead: He tries squeezing through the front door and gets stuck. After days of waiting and losing weight, Rabbit and his friends (e.g. a hedgehog, several field mice, and a weasel {somewhat ungratefully referred to in the book as a honey-stealing "woozle"}) and relations, along with Piglet, are finally able to pull him free.
  • The Witch of Blackbird Pond: After their cousin Kit comes to stay in Massachusetts, the local wealthy bachelor William Ashby becomes enamored with her. They eventually become engaged. Due to some really bad luck and mass hysteria, however, the Cruffs accuse Kit as a witch because she helped Hannah Tupper, a harmless Quaker woman, escape an angry mob.
    You'd Expect: William would attend the trial to give Kit moral support, if not to defend her. They are more or less engaged after all.
    Instead: William stays away. Kit's sailor friend Nat returns and proves her innocence.
    The Result: When he finally comes, after a few weeks, Kit lays into William about how he abandoned her in her time of need and for trying to micromanage her choice of friends. She breaks off the engagement saying they're too different. He marries her cousin Judith, whom he was courting earlier, and she decides to marry Nat when he returns with a new boat.
  • In The Witcher, during the final volume of the books, Lady of the Lake, Ciri discovers that her adoptive mother Yennefer has been kidnapped by a sorcerer Vilgefortz, who is trying to capture Ciri for his own ends and is using Yennefer as a hostage. Ciri knows that Vilgefortz has been employing the remorseless sociopathic killer Leo Bonhart to capture her (along with other killers that he regards as expendable), that he's horrifically tortured Yennefer, and in general has done nothing whatsoever to suggest he has any conscience.
    You'd Expect: That Ciri would realize that Vilgefortz isn't the kind of person who would spare someone out of the mercy of his heart.
    Instead: Ciri walks into his castle and offers herself, asking them to let Yennefer go in return.
    Unsurprisingly: Vilgefortz laughs at her, has her restrained, and prepares to forcibly impregnate her. Fortunately for Ciri, the sudden arrival of Geralt and his companions spares her the consequences of her stupidity.
  • The Witches by Roald Dahl (1983): A 7-year-old boy (the narrator of the story), whose parents have died in a car crash, now lives with his maternal grandmother, who is Norwegian and an expert on the titular "real" witches, in Oslo, Norway. She tells her grandson how to tell them apart from ordinary women (e.g. their blue saliva, larger-than-normal nostrils, and the fact that they always wear gloves in public, since they have cat-like claws in place of fingernails). She mentions that witches are not human women, but rather demonesses in human shape. She also explains that the witches of each country have annual meetings, possibly at a hotel in the manner of most groups of women who are holding meetings. At each meeting, the witches are instructed by the witches' ruler, the Grand High Witch Of All The World, on how to magically get rid of children. This is because to witches, clean children smell like dogs' droppings; therefore, the boy's grandmother advises him to bathe only once a month. The boy and his grandmother have to move back to England, where he was born, and three weeks into the Summer Term, she comes down with pneumonia. She recovers in three more weeks, but the doctor points out that in her condition, she and her grandson cannot go on their planned holiday to Arendal, Norway, where she had spent her own summer holidays at her grandson's age. The doctor tells them that they can, however, go to the Hotel Magnificent in Bournemouth, England, and they do as he says.
    You'd Expect: During their stay at the hotel, the boy and his grandmother would keep on the alert for any women with suspicious features, especially since she has informed him that witches may hold their meetings at hotels.
    Instead: The boy and his grandmother, while they're at the hotel, don't appear to even be thinking about witches. At least eighty women from the so-called R.S.P.C.C. (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) arrive for their annual meeting. Nobody, including the boy and his grandmother, notices that all of these women have large nostrils and are wearing gloves. This leads to the boy sneaking into the same room that their meeting is scheduled to teach his pet mice circus tricks. As expected, the women from the "R.S.P.C.C." turn out to be the "vitches of Inkland", accompanied by the Grand High Witch (who, like the boy's grandmother and deceased parents, is Norwegian). The Grand High Witch gives the other witches instructions on how to prepare Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse-Maker, because she wants all of the children of England turned into mice. The boy, who is still in hiding, is caught as well and turned instantly into a mouse with 500 doses (the contents of one bottle) of the formula. He cannot be changed back.
    Fortunately: As a mouse, he manages to get hold of one of the Grand High Witch's tiny bottles of the formula, and pours it into the soup that is being prepared for her and the rest of the "Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children". The witches, who have had nearly six doses apiece, are all turned immediately into mice and exterminated. His grandmother informs him that as a mouse, he will probably live only about 9 more years, but he doesn't mind, since she reveals that she's 86 and is likely to also die soon. The boy and his grandmother decide to make the formula themselves, since he remembers all of the ingredients, and use it to turn as many witches as they can into mice (and bring six cats with them to kill the mouse-witches, with the mouse-boy being kept out of sight, since these particular mice would be too smart for mouse-traps). The mouse-boy also realizes that in some ways, he's not actually much worse off as a mouse, as he indicates via this quote:
    "I found myself thinking, What's so wonderful about being a little boy anyway? Why is that necessarily any better than being a mouse? I know that mice get hunted and they sometimes get poisoned or caught in traps. But little boys sometimes get killed, too. Little boys can be run over by motor-cars or they can die of some awful illness. Little boys have to go to school. Mice don't. Mice don't have to pass exams. Mice don't have to worry about money. Mice, as far as I can see, have only two enemies, humans and cats. My grandmother is a human, but I know for certain that she will always love me whoever I am. And she never, thank goodness, keeps a cat. When mice grow up, they don't ever have to go to war and fight against other mice. Mice, I felt pretty certain, all like each other. People don't.
    Yes, I told myself, I don't think it is at all a bad thing to be a mouse".
  • Wolf Hall
    • George Boleyn does not like the king's Master Secretary, Thomas Cromwell, and tries to poison his relationship with Henry. He succeeds in planting doubts in Henry's mind, and Henry flies into a screaming rage that Cromwell only just escapes from intact.
      You'd Expect: George to just let it happen without saying anything.
      Instead: He finds Cromwell afterwards to gloat about how Cromwell's been put in his place, thus letting Cromwell know who put the idea into Henry's head. And he fails to realize what Cromwell means when he says "I will profit by this lesson."
    • Later, George is on trial for treason and incest with Anne. Cromwell gives him a piece of paper and says there's no need to read it aloud, only to say if he recognizes what's written on it.
      You'd Expect: That George would limit his answer to no because it's a line of insults against Henry.
      Instead: He reads it in a condescending tone to raise a laugh. Then he sees the judges' expressions and hastily tries to disclaim ownership of the words, but just reading it out on the stand is enough to condemn him by Tudor justice. (Granted, Cromwell had marked him for vengeance anyway for his role in Cardinal Wolsey's downfall and could have done it without the Reverse Psychology, but George didn't have to make it so easy.)
    • Cromwell prepares for a Battle of Wits with the musician Mark Smeaton, since he plans to use Mark as a wedge to open a case for adultery and treason charges against Anne Boleyn and several other men. He starts, all politeness, by asking if he knows why Anne is unhappy.
      You'd Expect: Mark to continue being suspicious of Cromwell, though admittedly it wouldn't have changed the outcome.
      Instead: He claims that Anne is unhappy because she's in love with him, Mark, and they have in fact slept together. Cromwell has to stop and simply be astonished before he slips into being Bad Cop.
      Also: When Mark realizes what's actually going on and tries to take it back, Cromwell points out that nobody had hurt or even threatened him. He just blurt it out all on his own.
  • Woodwalkers: One day, Miro (who can turn into a wolf) joins the Clearwater High. Carag now fears that he will join the pack of the racist bully Jeffrey (who can also turn into a wolf). A normal person would've done everything to show Miro that he doesn't have to join Jeffreys pack just because wolves live like that in the wild- but for some reasons, Carag just ignores Miro for the rest of the book and even when he learns that Miro joined the pack he does exactly nothing to get him out of it.
  • In the Worldwar saga by Harry Turtledove, nuclear physicist Jen Larssen has just overcome a broken down car, abduction by invading aliens, and George Patton to finish a half-a-year long journey to Chicago. He's kept on going by the thought of reuniting with his wife, who left with the University of Chicago Metlab caravan transporting the American Nuclear Program to Denver; she thinks he's dead, and has now begun a relationship with a ballplayer/scifi fan turned soldier. He asks an Colonel, Hexam, for permission to follow the caravan or to at least send his wife a message telling her that he's still alive.
    You'd Expect: At the very least, the Colonel will let him send a brief telegram. Even if the Alien invaders, The Race, intercepts it, they have proven themselves to be incompetent at the art of deception. Thus, Jens, and the American Nuclear Program, would be safe.
    Instead: The colonel refuses to comply; Hexham tells him that if he did, then The Race would learn, one way or another, the Nuclear Program's location from him. Jens has to go on strike to convince Hexham to let him take a train to Denver, by which point, his wife is remarried and pregnant. When Hexham meets him again, he continues to treat Jens like shit. Unsurprisingly, Jens turns on Hexham, and kills him, a guard, and three members of an army group sent after him, AND attempts to tell The Race where the Nuclear Program is. Thus, Hexham's paranoia nearly results in The Race almost nuking Denver. Nice going, moron!
  • Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories by Theodor Seuss Geisel (aka "Dr. Seuss"). In the second story, "Gertrude McFuzz", the titular bird has a tail consisting of only a single small feather. She envies another bird, Lolla-Lee-Lou, because her tail consists of two feathers, each of which is much longer and fancier than Gertrude's. Gertrude seeks the advice of her Uncle Dake, and he tells her of a hill where pill-berries grow. These will embellish her tail.
    You'd Expect: He'd advise her to eat no more than one or two of said berries.
    Instead: He doesn't, and when she finds the berries, she eats all three dozen (or 36) of them. Her first two new tail feathers pose no hindrance to her ability to fly, but the next 34 bring her total weight to 90 pounds, and she can't fly, or move in any way at all.
    Fortunately: Her Uncle Dake hears her calling for help, and he and several other birds come to her rescue.
    But You'd Expect: Right there on the hill, they'd pull out all of the tail feathers that Gertrude had attained from eating the berries that had grown there, especially since, after the first two, the remaining 34 new tail feathers had all branched out from the same quill.
    Instead: Her uncle and all of the other birds accompanying him fly Gertrude back home, each keeping her aloft with a rope. As the narration states: "To lift Gertrude up almost broke all their beaks / And to fly her back home, it took almost two weeks. / And then it took almost another week more / To pull out those feathers. My! Gertrude was sore!"
    The Result: Gertrude is left with only her original tail feather, "but now that's enough, because now she is smarter".

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