History Main / ImproperlyParanoid

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* ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic'' has the wizards summon Death. One of them, not liking the way Death was looking at him (ie, Death is coming for him), proceeds to build a box with every enchantment, ward and protective spell he can think of and climbs inside, certain he's secure. The last thing he hears is a voice next to his ear saying "[[/folder]]

[[folder: DARK IN HERE, ISN'T IT? ]]
". In building his box, he did not stop to consider adding airholes.

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* ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic'' has the wizards summon Death. One of them, not liking the way Death was looking at him (ie, Death is coming for him), proceeds to build a box with every enchantment, ward and protective spell he can think of and climbs inside, certain he's secure. The last thing he hears is a voice next to his ear saying "[[AC:DARK IN HERE, ISN'T IT?]]". In building his box, he did not stop to consider adding airholes.

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* Plenty of historical dictators were this. A random example is Josef Stalin, whose purges to protect himself crippled the Soviet Union's military, yet led him to trust Adolf Hitler on the basis of "I see myself in him and I would never do that", in the face of loads of evidence to the contrary. Another is Pol Pot, who was so afraid of "intellectuals" "contaminating" his dictatorship that he went as far as executing people ''solely because they wore glasses''.

This is not TheParanoiac. That trope's examples are demonstrated to be paranoid all the time, about everything, so they're afraid of everything. And often, such behavior will result in purely defensive reactions (going off the grid, tinfoil hats, etc). This trope is about when people are unable to live with the mild fear of certain possibilities and end up making decisions that not only affect ''other'' people negatively, but very often end up causing the exact situation they feared to come to pass. This is especially prevalent if the being who does it should be smart enough to see the very clear possible backfires and downsides (or has direct past experience of these kind of actions not working), but does it ANYWAY.

The end result is never good. In fact, it almost always ends in SelfFulfillingProphecy. NiceJobFixingItVillain, NiceJobBreakingItHerod, and all the tropes in that vein (they're also incredibly vulnerable to [[ParanoiaGambit Paranoia Gambits]] and are often what said gambits aim to achieve, though using one might end up backfiring in turn because of the severe overreaction that can occur). All because they can't live with their fear, however mild and background and running on long odds it may be. Can also lead to BullyingADragon, and the consequences of THAT trope as well.

* During the last season of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Chancellor Gowron begins to fear that General Martok will try to kill him and seize control of the Klingon Empire, so he sets a UriahGambit in motion to get rid of Martok. Worf, however, sees through it and challenges Gowron to a duel. [[spoiler:He kills Gowron and appoints Martok the next Chancellor, exactly the scenario that Gowron feared.]]

* While not ''[[BewareTheSuperman completely]]'' unjustified, the plots regarding many {{General Ripper}}s trying to get rid of ComicBook/{{Superman}} (for example, ''ComicBook/NewKrypton'') nine times out of ten (and this is being pretty generous on their behalf) are triggered because they go past mistrust and straight into deciding the only solution for whatever problem is occurring is to [[MurderIsTheBestSolution just murder]] the Kryptonian and anybody unlucky enough to either be in the kill zone or in the way of getting it approved. This trope extended to the animated continuity of the DC Universe as well; see below.

* In ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "The Mirror", a revolutionary-turned-dictator inherits a mirror from his predecessor, which the man says will show a person his enemies. The new dictator becomes paranoid as he sees his friends in the mirror and kills them off. Finally, after having thrown the entire country into disarray with his paranoia, he sees himself in the mirror. Two people walk into the room to find him dead on the floor.

* While not ''[[BewareTheSuperman completely]]'' unjustified, the plots regarding many {{General Ripper}}s trying to get rid of ComicBook/{{Superman}} (for example, ''ComicBook/NewKrypton'') nine times out of ten (and this is being pretty generous on their behalf) are triggered because they go past mistrust and straight into deciding the only solution for whatever problem is occurring is to genocide the Kryptonian and anybody unlucky enough to either be in the kill zone or in the way of getting it approved. This trope extended to the animated continuity of the DC Universe as well; see below.

'''Allied Captain:''' Hang on a minute, we didn't have a spy here!

'''Allied Captain:''' An impressive display. How unfortunate for him that ''that was not our spy''! Gwahahaha!

* GreekMythology is full of kings whose sons/grandsons were prophesied to dethrone them, and reacted by sending the baby to be killed or walling up their daughters. In every case, they weren't paranoid ''enough'': either the servants sent to do the deed couldn't go through or the girl was rescued by a god, ensuring the child would be a nigh-unkillable demigod.

* ''[[Hercules2014 Hercules]]'' has [[spoiler: King Eurystheus. In this version of the story, Hercules didn't kill his family due to Hera driving him mad: instead Eurystheus drugged him and had a pack of wolves kill his family while making Hercules think he had done it. Why? Because Hercules was lauded as a great hero and the son of Zeus, and he believed that eventually the people would call for him to be king. He figured killing Hercules would make him a martyr, so he decided to ruin his life and name instead. What REALLY drives this home is that Hercules had zero interest in being king and says so outright (that he 'wanted nothing'); Eurystheus, clearly projecting himself onto the hero, counters with this bit of InsaneTrollLogic.]]
--->'''King Equrystheus''': Precisely! Your sin, Hercules, was that you had no ambition! I can deal with an ambitious man! He can be bought! But a man who wants nothing ''has no price!''

* While not ''[[BewareTheSuperman completely]]'' unjustified, the plots regarding many {{General Ripper}}s trying to get rid of ComicBook/{{Superman}} (for example, ''ComicBook/NewKrypton''). This trope extended to the animated continuity of the DC Universe as well; see below.

--->King Eurystheus: Precisely! Your sin, Hercules, was that you had no ambition! I can deal with an ambitious man! He can be bought! But a man who wants nothing ''has no price!''

* ''Film/WarGames'' and its continuation ''The Dead Code'' both have the teenager protagonists going through great trouble (and thus AdultaAreUseless) because the forces they could contact believe the teens, with their unusual skills and histories, are agents to enemy forces (Russian spies in the original, terrorists in ''Dead Code'') rather than people that were in the wrong place at the wrong time and pissed off the wrong super-computer.

!Examples

* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' trilogy, even though Katniss herself had no intent of starting a revolution, President Snow believed otherwise. The brutal crackdowns organized by him out of this fear and culminating in bombing District 12 (the home land of Katniss), [[spoiler:combined with implied manipulations of Heavensbee]], led to the revolution -- and Katniss becoming the IconOfRebellion -- becoming a SelfFulfillingProphecy

* HarryPotter: As the letters from Hogwarts grow ever more numerous, Uncle Vernon takes increasingly-strange measures, such as moving away from the house to a tiny island in the middle of nowhere and buying a gun. It could have ended very badly had Hagrid not taken the gun and tied it into a knot.
** There's also the RunningGag of Harry constantly believing that Severus Snape is part of any plot that is occurring on Hogwarts is pretty much this Trope in action... and even when he ''was'', he was GoodAllAlong. Though Snape being an asshole to Harry almost all of the time because of old grudges regarding his father didn't help.
* Discworld/TheLightFantastic has the wizards summon Death. One of them, not liking the way Death was looking at him (ie, Death is coming for him), proceeds to build a box with every enchantment, ward and protective spell he can think of and climbs inside, certain he's secure. The last thing he hears is a voice next to his ear saying "[[AC:DARK IN HERE, ISN'T IT?]]". In building his box, he did not stop to consider adding airholes.

* Characters in ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'' with the "Paranoid" trait have a tendency to see plots against themselves and their loved ones ''everywhere'', or suspect that they're not the father of their wife's child. They're right some of the time but most of the time they're wrong: a good rule of thumb for players is that if your spymaster didn't tell you about the plot, your character is imagining things.

* Plenty of historical dictators were this. A random example is Josef Stalin, whose purges to protect himself crippled the Soviet Union's military, yet led him to trust Adolf Hitler on the basis of "I see myself in him and I would never do that", in the face of loads of evidence to the contrary. Another is Pol Pot, who was so afraid of 'intellectuals' 'contaminating' his dictatorship that he went as far as executing people ''solely because they wore glasses''.

* The comic book version of ''ComicBook/{{Red}}'' (though not the movie, which is very different) has this drive the whole plot. Paul Moses is a retired CIA agent who has done many, many bad things [[{{Realpolitik}} for the sake of his country]], but is now an old man content to quietly while away his final years in isolation. Then the CIA gets a new director, who learns of Moses' existence and deeds, and completely freaks out over them, and more specifically, what could happen if anyone found out. Never mind Moses is tucked away counting his days until death; the fear of the possibility is too much and said director orders Moses' assassination. And things go downhill from there...