History Main / LawfulStupid

** In "The Loophole," Bobert, due to being LiteralMinded, quickly descended into this when Gumball and Darwin order him to uphold the law, choosing to uphold ''very'' ridiculous laws by burning off Miss Simian's hair with a laser ("According to the law in New Mexico, females are forbidden to appear unshaven in public."), threatening an old man simply eating soup with an ArmCannon ("According to the law in New Jersey, it is illegal to slurp your soup."), continuing to do so when said old man screams in fear ("In North Carolina, it is illegal to sing off-key."), ripping off a security guard's beard ("In Massachusetts, goatees are illegal without a license."), and blowing up Billy's lollipop ("Lollipops are also banned.") When Gumball tries to stop him, Bobert tries to shoot him for "obstruction of justice," only to miss and blow up the roof, at which point Bobert starts shooting ''himself'' for destroying public property.

%%* Emiri Kimidori from ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya''.

** Kathryn Janeway of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' has occasionally been Lawful Stupid. Several times she has refused to take an opportunity to get the ship home because it would require going against the "values" of the Federation. This isn't always a bad thing, mind -- the Federation was envisioned as a near-idealistic society so it would have some values worth keeping to -- but it grated on some viewers after a while. And if she ''had'', [[StatusQuoIsGod the show would have been over]]. Was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in an episode, where a holographic simulation shows the Maquis taking over ''Voyager'', because of their frustration over Janeway's Lawful Stupid tendencies. In "Madame Captain's" defense, though, the [[AlienNonInterferenceClause Prime Directive]] ''requires'' this of Starfleet officers; they are literally expected to die rather than violate the Prime Directive. There were times when Janeway's stupid insistence on following this or that rule was so obviously jeopardizing the lives of the crew that any sane and reasonable life-form would have knocked her out and taken over the ship. And then she'd suddenly decide to pull something underhanded in an attempt to get home, before going back to acting all high-and-mighty again, which made her look like the biggest hypocrite. No offense to Kate Mulgrew, the character was just badly written, with multiple writers adding to the problem by trying to enforce their own interpretation of her without regard for consistency or the fact that she would be written by others after them.

* One chapter (and episode) of ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'' features Tohru, a chaos dragon, going on a walking patrol. She ends up teamed with Elma, a harmony dragon, and they discuss how to best enforce laws. Tohru is fine with letting the little things go. Elma prefers the total harmony approach. Then they see some kids at a traffic crossing ...

** The dwarven council holds a vote on how their demigod should vote on a matter that will affect their entire race. A ''few'' of them try to motion a delay, noticing that a little more than half of the council is under vampiric MindControl meant to tamper with the vote. The vampires use a legal tactic to ignore the motion, and while a few eyebrows are raised, most of the undominated dwarves consider it an entirely reasonable compromise. The day is saved when [[spoiler:Durkon breaks the table. Rules say you can't vote without a table. Vote postponed.]]

[[TitleDrop Lawful Stupid]], also known as [[Blog/ThingsMrWelchIsNoLongerAllowedToDoInAnRPG Lawful Anal]], is for people who may call themselves LawfulNeutral or LawfulGood but lean toward such rigid adherence to the law that anybody who breaks any law, anywhere, for any reason, is the enemy. [[AllCrimesAreEqual Even saying an unkind word to someone is an act of pure evil]] to this kind of character, and the Lawful Stupid can and will act as JudgeJuryAndExecutioner. That is why they are called Lawful Stupid, not LawfulNeutral or LawfulEvil.

In [[TabletopGames tabletop roleplaying games]], this was once such a common behavior for paladins that acting Lawful Stupid is [[{{Flanderization}} what everyone expects paladins to do these days]]. The reason for this has to do with game mechanics in early editions of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' which required Paladins to act this way in order to avoid a {{Depower}}. A lot of inexperienced players failing to understand the difference between Intelligence and Wisdom didn't help the Paladin's image on this front, either. In fact, this kind of behavior from players is so common that the ''D&D'' {{Sourcebook}} ''Book of Exalted Deeds'' spends a good number of pages explaining how to be LawfulNeutral or LawfulGood without being stupid, largely included because [[WriterRevolt the creators themselves got sick of the attitude]].[[note]]However, they kind of failed, as the ''Book of Exalted Deeds'' is derisively referred to by players as ''Book of [[StupidGood Stupidly]] [[DumbIsGood Dumb Good]]'' because of how they handle Good and Evil in said book. Its companion piece the ''Book of Vile Darkness'' doesn't help matters.[[/note]] In-universe, a Paladin is supposed to be more street-smart than well-read, but [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration there was a big difference between Paladin lore and the way players used the class]], as well as the lore saying one thing and the rules saying another. Essentially, thanks to some miscommunications, confusion, and contradictions in the rules of early editions of ''D&D'', the Paladin class as a whole has had to shake off the reputation as a class for Lawful Stupid behavior. Even after decades of [[AuthorsSavingThrow efforts to correct the issue]], the Paladin still isn't completely in the clear.

* Zeus from the 2011 ''Film/{{Immortals}}''. Even though [[EvilOverlord Hyperion]] is going around slaughtering innocent villages and destroying temples, Zeus still forbids the Greek Gods from interfering on pain of death and kills [[WarGod Ares]] for pulling a BigDamnHeroes to save Theseus. He [[spoiler:finally does get personally involved, but only because Hyperion had already unleashed the Titans and the Greek Gods get slaughtered/critically wounded in the ensuing melee]].

** This is [[BollywoodNerd Baljeet]]'s entire character. He has a [[AmbiguousDisorder neurotic obsession]] with [[ScheduleFanatic routines and clear direction]] to the point that he sang an entire punk song (ironically) about enforcing this trope. His EstablishingCharacterMoment is him studying at the start of summer vacation despite already being TheSmartGuy. In the episode "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted!" he happily signs up for a brutal MilitarySchool after being declared too smart for his cram school. The episode ends up being AllJustADream, but it was entirely in character for him.

* ''Film/FourteenOhEight'': Enslin uses an old civil rights law to coerce Mr. Olin to let him stay in room 1408 despite the latter's ''very pointed'' requests that he not go in there and providing detailed files on the victims as proof that it's too dangerous. However, since Enslin ignores his warnings, Olin is forced to cooperate or otherwise open the hotel to a lawsuit.

* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', WhiteMagic is the color of order and law, which can easily be twisted into dogmatism and tyranny. Most examples of this happening are treated dead seriously as villains for their set, but there are no shortage of comedic cards showing bullheaded bureaucrats or idiotic paladins. For instance the un-set ''Unstable'' has the Order of the Widget, so devoted to honor through artifice that they literally turn themselves to toasters (their leader apparently has gone to the point of not being a sapient creature anymore).

* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' [[WhiteMagic white]] is the color of order and law, which can easily be twisted into dogmatism and tyranny. Most examples of this happening are treated dead seriously, but there are no shortage of comedic cards showing bullheaded bureaucrats or idiotic paladins. For instance the un-set ''Unstable'' has the Order of the Widget, so devoted to honor through artifice that they literally turn themselves to toasters (their leader apparently has gone to the point of not being a sapient creature anymore).
** On a more serious note, there is Azor, a White-Blue Planeswalker who plunged his home plane into a centuries-long CivilWar. He set up a comprehensive set of rules for a perfect society, and handed them to a faction he charged with upholding and enforcing said rules. When they failed, he went to the next one, and so on. He never realized that some people might not like his rules, that a bit of flexibility might have been better than trying to account for every contingency, and that some of the people he granted power would inevitably abuse it. Centuries later, he still hasn't figured it out.

** In the Author's Note to one of his books, Anthony defends his characters' Lawful Stupidity as being the right thing to do. In fact, the specific example he was defending was Grey Murphy's willingness to become the evil Com Pewter's servant (if he hadn't found a loophole in his contract), which was a particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} warped aesop since it wasn't even Grey who made the promise. It was his parents. Then it turns out that Grey's ultimate resolution to the problem is to reprogram Com Pewter against his will. Failing to honor promises you didn't make is wrong, but brainwashing is fine? Er, okay...

*** Fifth Edition has changed Paladins so they do not have to be traditionally lawful and can be outright evil with certain oaths. Each Paladin takes an Oath and are bound to follow its tenets, but these tenets range wildly from Oath of Ancient's [[HopeBringer oath to kindle the light of hope]], to the Oath of Conquest's demand to [[HopeCrusher crush all the hope of your enemies]]. The more traditional Oath of Crown demands you follow the law, it usually means you must follow and protect the laws of the monarch you swore the oath to, rather than every law of every nation you happen to be in. The only Oaths that have tactical combat implications are the Oath of Redemption, which has a tenet requiring that you use violence as a last resort, and the Oath of Conquest and the Oath of Vengence, both of which require that you be even more brutal to crush your enemies and make sure they ''stay'' crushed.

** This is a negative stereotype commonly associated with Helm, God of Duty & Obedience, Patron Deity of Watchmen and Guardsmen. A tendency to fall into this has been a particularly common accusation against both Helm and his faithful ever since the Time of Troubles, when Helm's response to Mystra's attempt to force her way back into the Planes was to kill her (arguably self-defence since she attacked him even after being warned not to, but their difference in power meant [[CurbStompBattle it wasn't a 'battle' by any metric]]), further damaging the already-strained power of magic and creating the hitherto unknown phenomena of Dead Magic Zones and Wild Magic Zones (also called Helmlands by people who want to put the blame where it belongs). It got even worse when some of his worshipers traveled to TabletopGame/{{Maztica}}, the Realms Mexico-analogue, where they proceeded to act like conquistadors.

** This is a negative stereotype commonly associated with Helm, God of Duty & Obedience, Patron Deity of Watchmen and Guardsmen. A tendency to fall into this has been a particularly common accusation of both Helm and his faithful ever since the Time of Troubles, when Helm's response to Mystra's attempt to force her way back into the Planes was to kill her (arguably self-defence since she attacked him even after being warned not to, but their difference in power meant [[CurbStompBattle it wasn't a 'battle' by any metric]]), further damaging the already-strained power of magic and creating the hitherto unknown phenomena of Dead Magic Zones and Wild Magic Zones (also called Helmlands by people who want to put the blame where it belongs). It got even worse when some of his worshipers traveled to TabletopGame/{{Maztica}}, the Realms Mexico-analogue, where they proceeded to act like conquistadors.

*** Other Inevitables cleave very close to this trope on occasion. There's even one Inevitable that will kill you for living too long, should you do so by unnatural or extreme means (such as becoming a lich or sacrificing many other lives for your own protection). Ironically, there's an Inevitable caste whose mission is to protect the existing divine pantheons -- which means that Obligatum should be coming under fire from a member of this much stronger caste.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' describes the "lawful over good" approach as a characteristic of the entire plane of Arcadia (between LG and LN). It's the primary plane of influence of the Harmonium faction. That is until the Hardheads managed to ''[[spoiler:slip the whole layer into Mechanus]]''. And got LaResistance, including proxies of Arcadian gods who weren't too happy [[spoiler:that they had to re-create their domains]], surprise. ''AD&D Player's guide to the Planes'':

* In [[Recap/TheGoodPlaceS3E10TheBookOfDougs an episode]] in season 3 of ''Series/TheGoodPlace'', [[spoiler:the titular version of heaven is run by [[CelestialBureaucracy the committee]], bureaucrats who [[ObstructiveBureaucrat never break the rules]], even if it's the right thing to do. When it is revealed to them that [[EasyRoadtoHell no one has gotten into the good place in half a millennium]] because of how in modern society most choices lead to more unintended bad outcomes than intended good ones, the most urgent rule-abiding action they can take is form an investigational team which will take 1,400 years. They are aware this issue is incredibly urgent and that billions of good people will suffer in hell due to their slow actions but choose to remain bound by their rules no matter what]].

*** If you think about it, the whole point of the Prime Directive is recognizing that interfering can do more harm than good. [[GodzillaThreshold But if a culture is already facing the worst-case scenario (extinction), it's hard to see how Starfleet can make it worse]]. The only defense to this that kind of makes sense is, "What if they actually weren't going to go extinct and you ''cause'' them to go extinct trying to prevent it?"
*** The worse it got was during one of [[Film/StarTrekInsurrection their movies]]. Let's just say protecting the allegory of Native Americans and their way of life doesn't work if the captain took part in ''two'' Forced Relocations ''and'' said allegory was hogging radiation that could save lives... Comparison? There are around 600 Natives. The radiation could save ''billions''.

* In the two-part finale episode of ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' Season 6 it was revealed there was a [[MirrorUniverse "good" and a "bad" universe]] (with ours being the former). However, due to some events in part one that cosmically unbalanced the two universes, even the most minor of infringements of law or courtesy would lead to a horrible punishment in the one supposed to be good. Among the punishments that are seen onscreen are one of the main characters being shot point-blank in the chest for parking her car on her neighbor's property without permission (Leo managed to heal her) and a nurse at the hospital having his hand cut off for using his cell phone indoors. In fact, when the main characters visit the hospital, they discover that the maternity ward is the only area of the hospital not dedicated to treating criminals for the injuries they received at the hands of the police in accordance with this trope. In the MirrorUniverse, it becomes ''good'' deeds that are punished with death. Even something as simple as saying "God bless you" after someone sneezes. [[EveryoneHasStandards This is too extreme even for the Charmed Ones' evil counterparts to live with]], and the two sets of Charmed Ones cooperate to re-balance the universes.

* In the two-part finale episode of ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' Season 6 it was revealed there was a [[MirrorUniverse "good" and a "bad" universe]] (with ours being the former). However, due to some events in part one that cosmically unbalanced the two universes, even the most minor of infringements of law or courtesy would lead to a horrible punishment in the one supposed to be good. Among the punishments that are seen on-screen are one of the main characters being shot point-blank in the chest for parking her car on her neighbor's property without permission (Leo managed to heal her) and a nurse at the hospital having his hand cut off for using his cell phone indoors. In fact, when the main characters visit the hospital, they discover that the maternity ward is the only area of the hospital not dedicated to treating criminals for the injuries they received at the hands of the police in accordance with this trope. In the MirrorUniverse, it becomes ''good'' deeds that are punished with death. Even something as simple as saying "God bless you" after someone sneezes. [[EveryoneHasStandards This is too extreme even for the Charmed Ones' evil counterparts to live with]], and the two sets of Charmed Ones cooperate to re-balance the universes.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' there was a [[MirrorUniverse "good" and a "bad" universe.]] However, due to some events, even the most minor of infringements of law or courtesy would lead to a horrible punishment in the one supposed to be good. Among the punishments that are seen on-screen are one of the main characters being shot point-blank in the chest for parking her car on her neighbor's property without permission (Leo managed to heal her) and a nurse at the hospital had his hand cut off for using his cell phone indoors. In fact, when the main characters visit the hospital, they discover that the maternity ward is the only area of the hospital not dedicated to treating criminals for the injuries they received at the hands of the police in accordance with this trope.
** In the MirrorUniverse, it's ''good'' deeds that are punished with death. Even something as simple as saying "God bless you" after someone sneezes.

* In ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', Glen Talbot has staked his career on shutting down S.H.I.E.L.D. because that's what the US government wants and doesn't seem to think too hard about how the US military will deal with HYDRA, an organization that even S.H.I.E.L.D. has struggled to contain. Talbot eventually wises up to the point that when HYDRA pulls an attack pretending to be S.H.I.E.L.D. at the UN, he's the first to express doubts it was really them and thereafter quickly evolves into actively cooperating, unofficially, with Coulson.

* LawfulEvil characters may seem unlikely to be vulnerable to this, but EvenEvilHasStandards. Many a NobleDemon has met their downfall because IGaveMyWord. Others may have no problem with harming "players in the game" but not innocents, which may leave them vulnerable to deception. Stranger still: {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s or {{Black Knight}}s might do anything within the rules to further their ambitions, but the suggestion of even a minor actual violation of the law or their personal code is a BerserkButton.

--->'''Thunderhooves:'''We have all made errors that made it easier for our enemies to strike at us. I hardly feel worthy of this Captain’s rank, allowing my fear of breaking the laws and traditions of Soul Society to control me so.\\