History TooDumbToLive / AnimeAndManga

* ''Manga/HangingBalloons'' by Creator/JunjiIto:
** The town is being haunted by a massive swarm of giant floating heads with nooses hanging from them, all of which are intent on killing everyone (especially the person with "their" face) and cannot be stopped. The protagonist's father... decides that, instead of locking the doors and windows and remaining safe, he needs to go to the office and get some paperwork done. When his children point out the ''very clear danger'' waiting for them outside, he says he can just protect his neck by wrapping his arm around it. Predictably, only a few steps out the door, he's snagged by a noose and dragged away.

** Goku's father Bardock from the prequel OVA ''Anime/DragonBallZBardockTheFatherOfGoku'', who knows far in advance that Frieza is going to destroy his home planet. What does he do? Thanks to a double dose of both HonorBeforeReason and RevengeBeforeReason he decides to take on Frieza single-handedly in a bid to stop him from destroying Planet Vegeta, despite knowing perfectly well that he was FAR too weak to stand a chance in hell against Frieza instead of getting in the nearest pod and getting the hell out of dodge and maybe coming back when he did stand a chance. To be fair, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Saiyans aren't exactly known for strategic retreats]]. But he could have at least warned his people about Frieze’s plans before getting himself killed.

** Wyald, demonic Apostle and leader of the Black Dog Knights, had ''one'' thing he wasn't allowed to do: do not kill Griffith, the man destined to become a member of [[ThePowersThatBe the God Hand.]] Three guesses what he tries to do. When he defends his actions to Zodd, a much stronger Apostle in the process of impaling him, he claims that the main directive of Apostles is basically "you can do whatever you want to whomever you want," and therefore his actions were perfectly fine. Zodd takes these words to heart, and declares that what ''he'' wants to do right now is rip Wyald to pieces for his insolence and stupidity. He proceeds to follow through.

*** Louvac and his men not only try to take on Revy (a badass of such renown in Roanapur that her presence bumped a bunch of mercenaries' price for a job from $1,000 to $30,000), but they try to shoot up the Lagoon Company's boat from both sides... without staggering their positions, causing two of the boats to take each other out.

** [[AristocratsAreEvil The World Nobles/Celestial Dragons]]. Extra credit goes to Saint Mjosgard and Donquixote Homing, who learned the hard way that the only reason people don't attack them is the threat of retribution from an [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking Admiral]]. Mjosgard antagonized the Fishmen after finding himself trapped in their city, and would have been killed if not for Otohime's intervention; to his credit, he did end up becoming a better person later on. Homing's case is even worse: [[WhiteSheep for all of his good intentions]], his stupid decision to give up his status as a World Noble and live among those who despised said nobles caused the ruin of his family ''and'' the death of his wife, got himself and his two young sons (one of them being a massive CreepyChild) subjected to ColdBloodedTorture... and at the end [[SelfMadeOrphan his creepy son ended up killing him]].

* ''LightNovel/GuardianNinjaMamoru'': The very premise of the series: a family has been secretly protected for ninjas for so long that they've lost the ability to survive normal life. The latest descendant, the female protagonist, therefore has a supernatural ability to walk blindly into trouble, and generally gets rescued before she even realizes what's happening.

** Goku's father Bardock from the prequel OVA ''Anime/DragonBallZBardockTheFatherOfGoku'', who knows far in advance that Frieza is going to destroy his home planet. What does he do? Thanks to a double dose of both HonorBeforeReason and RevengeBeforeReason he decides to take on Frieza single-handedly in a bid to stop him from destroying Planet Vegeta, despite knowing perfectly well that he was FAR too weak to stand a chance in hell against Frieza instead of getting in the nearest pod and getting the hell out of dodge and maybe coming back when he did stand a chance. To be fair, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Saiyans aren't exactly known for strategic retreats]].

** Shou Tucker's infamous decision is almost as idiotic as it is despicable. So he creates a talking chimera, using a human being as one of the two creatures fused to make said chimera. If anyone knew, he'd be executed, and not once does it cross his mind that a chimera that can talk...[[SheKnowsTooMuch can talk]]. He gets incredibly lucky with his first chimera; the only thing it says is "[[DrivenToSuicide I want to die]]." So, what does he do? He makes another one! And this one ''does'' tell on him. Worse, rather than finding someone who wouldn't be missed, he uses his own daughter! Even if she hadn't revealed the AwfulTruth to the Elric brothers, the chimera would have drawn attention and someone would have realized Nina was missing and put two and two together.
** In the manga version, several members of the Amestris military give [[PsychoForHire Zolf J. Kimblee]] a Philosopher's Stone so he can test it to see how much more powerful he gets. Kimblee uses it to create massive destruction, upon his return they ask for it back, and Kimblee does what everyone who has spent 5 minutes with the man expects. He swallows the stone then kills the morons who gave arguably the most psychotic person in the series (only Envy is as close) a stone that upgrades his power. Maybe next time they should do some research on the guy they use for their experiment.
** Kimblee later suggests that he faked being sane in order to pass the State Alchemist exam. Perhaps everyone except the Homunculi and those in on their plan was fooled.

* ''{{LightNovel/Baccano}}'':

* ''LightNovel/BludgeoningAngelDokuroChan'':

* ''LightNovel/DenpaTekiNaKanojo'':

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'':

* The series ''LightNovel/SagaOfTanyaTheEvil'' has the entire military of The Duchy of Dacia, who not only marched three divisions of infantry into a highly industrialized military super power with access to [[MilitaryMage flying magical troops]], using outdated military formation without ''any'' artillery, air support, or mages of their own to support their infantry, but also don't even try to hide their troop movements or radio transmissions. And just to add some more idiocy to the mix, not only left their ''capital'' poorly defended, but were already celebrating their "victory" before the '''first battle'''. It goes without saying, that they almost immediately receive a brutal CurbStompBattle, when Major Tanya Degurechaff's battalion of only forty eight mages route their army of '''fifty thousand infantry''', capture their commanding officer, and just for good measure, [[spoiler: stroll into their capital without any resistance and blow up their munitions plant, pretty much defeating the entire country in one night.]]

* ''{{LightNovel/Slayers}}'':

* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'':

* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnline'':

* ''LightNovel/{{Tytania}}'':
** Duke Idris Tytania betrays another member of the clan he was sent to rescue, and stands by to watch while the enemy destroys his ship, presumably killing everyone on board, including Idris's subordinate, Berthier, who ''thought'' he was in on Idris's plans. Berthier actually manages to get to an escape pod and survives, though he is permanently crippled. Then, although he is presumed dead and could easily just take off, ''he goes back to continue serving the guy that just double-crossed and tried to kill him.'' Yeah.

** Unlike the other members of the Zabi family, Kycilia Zabi knows Characters/GundamCharAznable's true identity as the son of Zeon Deikun, a man believed by many to have been assassinated by her father Degwin. She also knows that Char was with her brother Garma when he died, yet never connects the dots that Char was ''responsible'' for Garma's death and reinstates his commission after her brother Dozle suspends him for incompetence in 'failing' to protect Garma. Predictably, inviting the viper that is Char to her breast ends with Kycilia getting her head blown off by a bazooka courtesy of everyone's favorite mask-wearing traitor.

** Jamitov Hymen, the leader of the Titans, is for much of this series one of the most powerful men in the Earth Sphere. And yet, for all that political weight and savvy, he seems pathologically incapable of selecting even '''one''' loyal officer to surround himself with. He selects Bosque Ohm, a psychotic GeneralRipper, to be his {{Dragon}}, chooses habitual screw-up Jerid Messa to be his disciple, and recruits self-styled DarkMessiah Paptimus Scirocco from the Jupiter Energy Fleet to bolster the fighting power of the Titans. Not only do none of these three men have any loyalty to Jamitov (with the very thin exception of Jerid who defends him from assassination but still plans to succeed him one day), all of them are in fact conspiring ''against'' Jamitov, and the ''Zeta'' movies reveal that even if Scirocco hadn't killed Jamitov that Bosque would have done the dirty deed.

** Adenauer Paraya, TheFederation's point man in their negotiations with BigBad Char, is the brain trust who decides that the best way to appease a terrorist currently conducting a campaign of dropping giant space rocks on Earth is to give him.... a giant space rock. One loaded with nukes, even. He is shocked, ''shocked!'', when Char promptly betrays the agreement, and spends the rest of his onscreen time doing his best impression of the Persian messenger's VillainousBreakdown from ''Film/ThreeHundred'' ("We had a treaty! This is madness!") until his daughter Quess blows him away.

** Naomi Misora, the fiancee of the above-mentioned, recently murdered F.B.I. agent figures out crucial information on the Kira case and then decides to trust [[AloneWithThePsycho Light]] with it after he's been acting creepy, following her around, and asking "HaveYouToldAnyoneElse" Incidentally, she decides to trust Light because he reminds her of L.

* High Admiral Fritz Josef Bittenfeld from ''Literature/LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes'' ''somehow'' manages to avert this trope, in spite of his HotBlooded HairTriggerTemper, and as shown early on, being incredibly easy to bait into a trap. It's worth noting that some of his more questionable actions were a result of how aggressive he is, as opposed to him being legitimately dumb[[note]]in fact, if he toned his aggression down, he'd probably be one of the smartest admirals in the series[[/note]]. Interestingly, this trope ''would'' have been played straight in regards to him, considering the [[KillemAll type of series]] ''[=LOGH=]'' is, since the author ''did'' plan on killing him off eventually, but he somehow managed to survive.

* ''Anime/MazingerZ'': Several characters of the series (including TheHero or its {{Tsundere}} BattleCouple) get at least one occasion where they seem determined to off themselves. The civilians thought it was a good idea remaining near from the place where a HumongousMecha and a {{Robeast}} were fighting, or blamed the heroes for the destruction and deaths Hell and his lackeys were responsible of, or pressed the Government to yield EVERY TIME Dr. Hell was blackmailing it are good examples. A good, specific example is ''[[Characters/MazingerZ Yuri]]'', BrattyHalfPint Sayaka's cousin: Let's go over the facts, Yuri. You are a disabled, little IllGirl can't run or move quickly because you need a wheelchair. You know there is a giant robot in the city, stomping on buildings and people. Kouji has gone out to stop it after telling you very clearly you must stay in home because you are safer. Still do you insist on leaving the home and go to where the giant robots are fighting because you have a crush on Kouji and you want to see him? Okay, you can leave. After all, what can possibly go wrong?

** Cameron (Kotetsu), who appears in the second season of ''Best Wishes!'', [[UpToEleven somehow manages to be dumber than Ash]]. At least Ash is smart enough not to '''bring five Pokémon to a full six-on-six battle'''. Amazingly enough, Cameron ends up eliminating Ash from the Unova League -- but only because he gets really, really lucky.

*** Also, he let Cell absorb Android 18. That was arrogant to the point of sheer stupidity... [[SubvertedTrope Except he was prepared for just this kind of thing happening and nearly killed Cell anyway]]. Probably the only reason he failed is because he was unaware that Cell can regenerate.

* High Admiral Fritz Josef Bittenfeld from ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' ''somehow'' manages to avert this trope, in spite of his HotBlooded HairTriggerTemper, and as shown early on, being incredibly easy to bait into a trap. It's worth noting that some of his more questionable actions were a result of how aggressive he is, as opposed to him being legitimately dumb[[note]]in fact, if he toned his aggression down, he'd probably be one of the smartest admirals in the series[[/note]]. Interestingly, this trope ''would'' have been played straight in regards to him, considering the [[KillemAll type of series]] ''[=LOGH=]'' is, since the author ''did'' plan on killing him off eventually, but he somehow managed to survive.

** Jun gets Episode 1 going by encountering a strange woman (Asuka) stalking her. When Asuka comes to her door in the middle of the night, Jun, despite being afraid, unlocks her own door, willingly gets in a car with Asuka, lets Asuka drive her to a darkened area of the docks, and obediently walks into a deserted warehouse whereupon Asuka locks her in with a werewolf. Jun in general is prone to acting like this by obediantely doing whatever other people tell her unless she activates her SuperPowredEvilSide.

** When Dr. Gero created Androids 17 and 18, he turned two rebellious teenagers into being stronger than himself. He also left their human brains and therefore free will intact, leaving them uncontrollable and unpredictable. Then he converted himself into an android, only to base his own design on the weaker energy absorbing model. Not content with ''that'' level of suicidal behavior, he continues to berate and threaten them after waking them up as a desperate GodzillaThreshold measure despite the fact that they've already tried to kill him once before, and ''continues'' doing this even after they snatch the killswitch remote control from him and he loses all his control over them. His death came quickly after. For an evil "genius", he's not too bright, at least not when it comes to [[NoSocialSkills dealing with rebellious teenagers]].
** Androids 17 and 18 themselves. Despite Android 16, Piccolo, Krillin, Trunks, and Tien ''all'' warning them to run from Cell while he's distracted, ''repeatedly'', both of them stayed, with 17 even arrogantly believing he could beat Cell by himself before he was absorbed -- ''after'' being beaten so badly by Cell he could barely stand, no less. His sister is no quicker on the uptake, though, standing around gaping even after Cell absorbs her brother, to the point where 16 literally has to grab her to try and make their escape (for all the good it does at that point.)

** [[PhysicalGod Beerus]]' job as a God of Destruction is to [[AboveGoodAndEvil destroy planets for the sake of balance]], as well as evil mortals that would upset that balance, but his [[TheGodsMustBeLazy laziness]] [[JerkassGods and irresponsibility]] led to the deaths of countless innocents and almost himself on several occasions. It's revealed that [[CantLiveWithoutYou the lives of Supreme Kais and their universe's Gods of Destruction are linked]], meaning that if Shin had died during the Buu Saga while he was sleeping so would he. Additionally, it's stated in the manga that he's [[TheFriendNobodyLikes despised by the other Gods of Destruction]] for an incident where he fell asleep for 50 years during a game of [[GooGooGodlike hide-and-seek which angered]] [[TopGod Zeno]] [[GooGooGodlike to the point where he nearly destroyed the multiverse]].

** Envy went on a huge rant about how it was the one who killed Roy Mustang's best friend Maes Hughes, and almost hurt itself from laughing about it. Envy went out of its way to tell how it was also the one who started the Ishval War and how amusing it was to see such a huge battle over the death of one little girl that it killed. Envy finds itself getting its [[EyeScream eyes burned off two seconds later]] by Roy Mustang. Good for Envy it can heal. But then, Envy doesn't know when to call it quits, pushing its luck one too many times by attempting a ShapeshifterGuiltTrip on Mustang by taking the form of Maes Hughes. Mustang responds by [[KillItWithFire blasting Envy with his strongest fire attack]] so many times that Envy's HealingFactor is overtaxed.

** In the Cross Fire omakes, a cult honestly expect Heinkel and Yumie, who they (correctly) believe to be Vatican assassins to leave simply because the cultists insist the church is a holy site. The same assassins that are there because members of said cult launched a chemical attack on the Vatican and ''tried to assassinate the pope'' then publicly took credit for the attack. Naturally Heinkel and Yumie kill all of them.
** Zorin Blitz explicitly disobeys orders from The Major to ''not'' attack Hellsing HQ due until the main forces arrive to Alucard and Seras being the organization's trump cards. While her attack ''does'' end up killing Pip and almost all of the Geese, she proceeds to gloat and mock Pip's death as being in vain instead; this only infuriates Seras, who drinks his blood and becomes a true vampire. Seras then proceeds to use the power that Zorin inadvertently granted to her by murdering Pip [[TheDogBitesBack to brutally and viciously destroy her]]. The Major doesn't even dignify Zorin with a suicide chip activation because of how badly she fucked up by disobeying him.

** [[AristocratsAreEvil The World Nobles/Celestial Dragons]]. Extra credit goes to Saint Miosgard and Donquixote Homing, who learned the hard way that the only reason people don't attack them is the threat of retribution from an [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking Admiral]]. Mjosgard antagonized the Fishmen after finding himself trapped in their city, and would have been killed if not for Otohime's intervention; to his credit, he did end up becoming a better person later on. Homing's case is even worse: [[WhiteSheep for all of his good intentions]], his stupid decision to give up his status as a World Noble and live among those who despised said nobles caused the ruin of his family ''and'' the death of his wife, got himself and his two young sons (one of them being a massive CreepyChild) subjected to ColdBloodedTorture... and at the end [[SelfMadeOrphan his creepy son ended up killing him]].

* The Princess from ''Manga/SleepyPrincessInTheDemonCastle'' doesn't have much in the way of common sense, and has died a few times because her need for a comfy sleeping spot outweighed her sense of self-preservation. At one point, she even purposely killed herself so she could take one of the demon monk's coffins to use as a bed.
* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline''

* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnline''

** [[JokeCharacter Rotton the Wizard]] seems like this at first, with his InTheNameOfTheMoon spiel at his introduction, during which Revy shoots him. Subverted in that he's the only one who bothered to wear a bulletproof vest. And his current position as a maybe-MoralityPet to a DragonLady KnifeNut and a ChainsawGood body disposal expert.

** [[PhysicalGod Beerus]]' job as a God of Destruction is to [[AboveGoodAndEvil destroy planets for the sake of balance]], as well as evil mortals that would upset that balance, but his [[TheGodsMustBeLazy laziness]] [[JerkassGods and irresponsibility]] led to the deaths of countless innocents and almost himself on several occasions. It's revealed that [[CantLiveWithoutYou the lives of Supreme Kais and their universe's Gods of Destruction are linked]], meaning that if Shin had died during the Buu Saga while he was sleeping so would he. Additionally, it's stated in the manga that he's [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer despised by the other Gods of Destruction]] for an incident where he fell asleep for 50 years during a game of [[GooGooGodlike hide-and-seek which angered]] [[TopGod Zeno]] [[GooGooGodlike to the point where he nearly destroyed the multiverse]].

** Much earlier on, Gato tries to pull YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness on Zabuza, the rogue ninja he hired, by personally bringing in an army of thugs to kill him and Team 7, and proceeds to desecrate the body of Zabuza's companion Haku as revenge for an earlier slight. While Zabuza is injured and exhausted, Gato doesn't realize that Zabuza actually cares for Haku enough to be enraged by his death, or that Zabuza could slice his way through Gato's men with a kunai between the teeth. In the ensuing battle, Zabuza is mortally wounded, but he does manage to kill Gato and several of his men.

** Chaka, not only the [[JerkAss biggest asshole]] in the series, but also the [[WhatAnIdiot biggest dumbass]] as well.

*** Never mind the fact that said guy, like most other Digimon in that world, [[YourSoulIsMine kills Digimon to absorb their data/strength]] -- which Makuramon ''knew'' -- and currently needed a boost to beat Megidramon. [[KickTheSonOfABitch Guess who]] [[WhatAnIdiot he picks]].

*** Later on in the series, Garlic Jr. returns, only to [[WhatAnIdiot try the exact same thing]]. Keep in mind again: Garlic Jr has CompleteImmortality. He could defeat literally anything in the universe by just wearing it down. He went for this solution ''twice.'' And since his return was only made possible by the Makyo Star (which is destroyed), the second time meant he was gone for good.

** Doubles with WhatAnIdiot. [[TheChessMaster Kabuto]] brags to [[RedemptionEqualsDeath Itachi]] that [[MyDeathIsOnlyTheBeginning killing him won't end to Edo Tensei]], laughing like a Bond Villain. He ends up in the [[AssPull Izanami]] [[FateWorseThanDeath loop]] since he can't keep his mouth shut or prepare in advance for someone attacking him directly to end Edo Tensei.

* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood'': After suffering numerous defeats at the hands of [[TheHero Jonathan Joestar,]] Dio Brando has been reduced to little more than a floating head. After getting the drop on him, his [[TheDragon Dragonm]] Wang-Chen gets irritable and rushes in to kill him, despite his master's warning not to underestimate him, [[spoiler: even as he's dying,]] since Dio is ''living evidence'' of what Jonathan is capable of. Jonathan offs Wang-Chen in one shot.

* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood'': After suffering numerous defeats at the hands of [[TheHero Jonathan Joestar,]] Dio Brando has been reduced to little more than a floating head. After getting the drop on him, his [[TheDragon Dragonm]] Wang-Chen gets irritable and rushes in to kill him, despite his master's warning not to underestimate him[[Spoiler:, even as he's dying,]] since Dio is ''living evidence'' of what Jonathan is capable of. Jonathan offs Wang-Chen in one shot.

** Demegawa, a slimy little man who uses the name of Kira to pad his own pockets, knowing that Kira is a vengeful god of justice without much sense of mercy. He and his circle become the first victims of Light's hand-picked Fourth Kira, Teru Mikami, who gives them all the "sakujo" treatment after Light gets fed up with him.