History Main / CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot

** While Spike ''did'' try to take steps to prevent a bad outcome, much of "Lesson Zero" could've been avoided had Twilight simply accepted Spike's advice that missing one letter to Celestia wouldn't doom her to Magic Kindergarten. More significantly, Twilight's friends realized that if they had taken Twilight's worries seriously from the start (even if they ''did'' think she was blowing things out of proportion) they could've acted to help Twilight and avoid the [[HilarityEnsues hilarity]] that ensued at episode's end.

* ''ThePowerpuffGirls'' has a good example of this. When a group of old super villains come out of retirement, Blossom refuses to stop them, citing respect for their elders. So they drag a couple of old super ''heroes'' out of retirement to stop them. As you might have guessed, the old timers are in no shape to fight, and they all wind up hospitalized by episodes end, leading to this quote from the {{Narrator}}.
-->'''Narrator''': In this reporter's opinion, all this could have been averted if the Powerpuff Girls had just saved the day."
** That episode is a combination of this and NiceJobBreakingItHero to some viewers.

* In the ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "11001001", the Bynars, a cybernetic and mildly hive-minded Federation species whose "[[PlanetOfHats hat]]" is binary thinking, seize control of the ''Enterprise'' in order to save their planetary database, tricking most of the crew into evacuating the ship and then trapping Picard and Riker in the holodeck. When Picard learns about their predicament and asks why they didn't just ask for help, they explain "you might have said no". Riker observes that, as the Bynars [[StrawVulcan only think in all-or-nothing absolutes]], the mere possibility of being turned down seemed as bad as a certainty to them.
* The ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "The Ship" has this trope as its main premise. The main characters (and several RedShirt characters) capture a Dominion battleship. The rest of the episode involves the Dominion trying to capture the ship by surrounding it leading to many deaths on both sides. In the end it is revealed [[spoiler: that the Dominion were only interested in rescuing a founder who dies during the siege. They would have gladly given the ship to the heroes in exchange for the founder, but they were too afraid that the heroes would kill it to ask]]. The episode ends with the characters lamenting the fact that all of these people died unnecessary deaths because they wouldn't trust each other.

* On ''HowIMetYourMother'' Marshall has a weird phobia about going to the bathroom at work; he feels like all his co-workers are judging him as they see him walk to the bathroom. He tries various ways to go to the bathroom secretly, until finally he just gets over his fear and uses the public bathroom at work without shame. Then Barney (who was also his co-worker at the time) reveals he has a private bathroom in his office that Marshall could have used at any time. In this case, however, Barney was well aware of Marshall's bathroom problem; he just never mentioned the solution because he's a {{Jerkass}}.

** You can also say this to the ]]ScaryDogmaticAliens githyanki]] high commander after the boss fight against her.

* In NeverwinterNights2, you can speak these words to a warlock [[spoiler:who just murdered his own granddaughter, one of your allies, in a fit of rage.]] The warlock in question is trying to achieve the same thing you are, reforging the [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Sword of Gith]] so that the [[BigBad King of Shadows]] can be defeated, but he's spent the past two chapters trying to kill anyone who might own a shard of the sword, including you.

!!Examples:

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "A Bird in the Hoof", Fluttershy, being a FriendToAllLivingThings decides (without asking permission) to look after Princess Celestia's "sick" bird. Fluttershy struggles to nurse the bird back to health, but apparently "fails" as the bird seemingly turns to ashes. It then turns out that the bird [[spoiler:is actually a phoenix]] making the entire episode a literal MythologyGag, afterwhich Fluttershy [[AnAesop learns]] that if she had just asked Celestia first, she would have known ahead of time.

* In ''{{Community}}'' episode [[Recap/CommunityS1E18BasicGenealogy Basic Genealogy]], a police officer points out that a fist fight could have been avoided if {{Pictionary}} would just [[MakesSenseInContext ban the word windmill]].

* Played straight in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "Cyberwoman". Three people died, the office got trashed and an opportunity to find a new weapon against the Cybermen was lost because Ianto didn't try selling the team on the idea of helping him out with the whole [[spoiler:partially Cyber-converted girlfriend in the basement]] until ''after'' it had GoneHorriblyWrong. Though Jack's... [[BerserkButton somewhat extreme reaction]] and subsequent behaviour does suggest he might not have got very far if he had.

* In ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series}}'', Yami rants to Pegasus about all the unnecessary death, expense and pointless angst he's caused by setting up the Duelist Kingdom tournament to try and cheat Yugi out of the Millennium Puzzle. "Did you ever consider just ''asking'' me for it? I mean, do you have ''any idea'' how much time and money you've wasted with this whole façade? People have ''died'' because ''you'' wanted a ''necklace!'' I killed a gay clown for Ra's sake!"

** To be fair to the antagonist, von Fogler [[spoiler: the antagonist's dad]] ''really'' should've left a note or something for [[spoiler: his son]] to read instead of making a video message that plays ''only'' when [[MacGuffin all three anti-shizuma drives]] are united. Said antagonist does call von Fogler out on this.

* In ''TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', the Civil War was started when Ulfric Stormcloak killed High King Torygg in a duel, which was seen by those opposed to him as murder since he used the [[LanguageOfMagic Thu'um]]. However, according to certain characters, not only was the duel somewhat one-sided (considering that Torygg was a young man who merely recieved some martial training while Ulfric was a war veteran in his prime), Torygg actually looked up to Ulfric and would likely have declared Skyrim's independence at his urging. However, in Ulfric's mind, he needed to send a strong message to the Empire.

* In ''TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', the Civil War was started when Ulfric Stormcloak killed High King Torygg in a duel, which was seen by those opposed to him as murder since he used the [[MakesMeWantToShout Thu'um]]. However, according to certain characters, not only was the duel somewhat one-sided (considering that Torygg was a young man who merely recieved some martial training while Ulfric was a war veteran in his prime), Torygg actually looked up to Ulfric and would likely have declared Skyrim's independence at his urging. However, in Ulfric's mind, he needed to send a strong message to the Empire.

** A great deal of the conflict in the series is caused by Ocelot getting too involved in his role instead of telling the people that he actively harasses that he is actually on their side. Only in [MGS4] does he finally tell anybody but by then his plan had already succeeded and many people died or got hurt in the process, and Snake especially personally suffers a great deal from the conflict. A lack of good communication skills is what causes 95% of the conflict in the story.

** A great deal of the conflict in the series is caused by Ocelot getting too involved in his role instead of telling the people that he actively harasses that he is actually on their side. Only in [[MGS4]] does he finally tell anybody but by then his plan had already succeeded and many people died or got hurt in the process, and Snake especially personally suffers a great deal from the conflict. A lack of good communication skills is what causes 95% of the conflict in the story.

** A great deal of the conflict in the series is caused by Ocelot getting too involved in his role instead of telling the people that he actively harasses that he is actually on their side. Only until MGS4 does he finally tell anybody but by then many people have died or gotten hurt in the process and Snake especially personally suffers a great deal from this. A lack of good communication skills is what causes 95% of the conflict in the story.

* In ChronoTrigger, [[spoiler:Magus' goal is to summon and destroy Lavos, the EldritchAbomination who he blames for corrupting his mother and tearing his family apart. In the process, he becomes leader of an army of magical beings waging war against humanity. The heroes, who also want Lavos destroyed, break into Magus' fortress and screw up the summoning ritual because they've been led to believe (quite reasonably, given the circumstances) that Magus created Lavos as a weapon. He becomes an optional party member at a later point in the game, if you manage to settle your differences with him.]]

* In the final case of AceAttorney ''Trials & Tribulations'', Godot admits to PhoenixWright that [[spoiler: if he had warned Wright about the plot to kill Maya from the get-go, they would have avoided all of the drama, to say nothing of the death of Maya's mother. He even admits that he cared more about proving himself to his dead lover, Wright's mentor and Maya's sister Mia, than he did about Maya herself. He basically set up the whole scheme as a way to make up for sleeping through her death due to being in a coma.]]

* In ''{{Angel}}'' Wesley abducted an infant Connor, believing a prophecy which stated Angel would kill his own son. Later, as Wesley lies injured in the hospital after his plan led to Connor's disappearance into a hell dimension, an angry Fred tells him that the prophecy had been altered and if Wesley had simply ''talked'' to anyone else the tragedy would have never occurred. Everyone else agrees Angel could never kill his son.