Basic Trope: A character's stupidity threatens the lives of those around them.
- Straight: Fatima is very dumb and doesn't think anything through. Thanks to her stupidity, she accidentally threw Griffin into a tiger pit, pulled a lever that blew Heather up, and put some poison in Ishmael's food because she thought it was sugar, killing all three.
- Exaggerated:
- Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds
- Fatima presses a large red button that clearly says "LOOK, IF YOU'RE GOING TO PUSH THIS, YOU PROBABLY DON'T EVEN DESERVE TO LIVE OR GET OUT OF THIS WITHOUT SEVERE FIRE BURNS ANYWAYS", and blows up all the other characters.
- Downplayed:
- Fatima only makes slightly dumb mistakes that anyone could make on a bad day.
- Fatima's mistakes cause injury, but not death.
- Justified:
- Fatima has a mental disability.
- Fatima is a badly designed AI who has no idea what kills a human and what doesn't, a case of A.I. Is a Crapshoot.
- Inverted:
- Fatima's intelligence killed Griffin, Heather, and Ishmael.
- Fatima's stupidity saved lives.
- Fatima kills herself.
- Subverted: Looks like Fatima killed Griffin, Heather, and Ishmael because she's stupid, but turns out she's a very competent assassin who killed them on purpose and uses Obfuscating Stupidity so no one suspects her.
- Double Subverted: ...except she killed the wrong people because she's an idiot.
- Parodied: Fatima accidentally kills people in ways that are usually purposeful- for example, accidentally stabs Griffin in the heart, accidentally shoots Heather in the head, and accidentally strangles Ishmael. She always yells "I STABBED/SHOT/STRANGLED (INSERT NAME), BUT IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! "It was an accident" becomes her Catchphrase.
- Deconstructed: Fatima is deemed a danger to others and sent to jail for manslaughter.
- Reconstructed: Jewel is hired to be Fatima's guardian/mentor to prevent these things, and a close bond grows between the 2 of them.
- Zig Zagged: Fatima is an assassin, but also an idiot, so sometimes she kills people on purpose, and sometimes it's a stupidity-related accident. The others never believe her when she says some deaths are accidental.
- Averted: Fatima's stupidity does not threaten lives.
- Enforced: Fatima is the main character, and the producers are looking for a way to have the other characters blame her for Griffin, Heather, and Ishmael's deaths, but they don't want her to be mean. Their solution? Make her lethally stupid.
- Implied: Fatima is established to be kind and earnest, but also an idiot. We see her, Griffin, his sister Karen, and a few others walking near a tiger pit. We cut away to another POV character, then return to the original group- Karen is screaming at Fatima for being stupid, and Griffin is dead in the tiger pit.
- Played for Drama: The loved ones of Griffin, Heather, and Ishmael are filled with grief and hate for Fatima, and they end up giving her a long The Reason You Suck speech, which convinces her that she is hated by all. She commits suicide.
- Played for Horror: Griffin, Heather, and Ishmael come back to haunt and torment Fatima.
- Lampshaded: "Fatima's so stupid, it actually killed someone."
- Invoked: The villain curses Fatima with stupidity so she accidentally kills the other heroes.
- Exploited: The villain's second-in-command, Lily, gives birth to Fatima and notices how lethally stupid she is, so she sends her away to be raised by the heroes, hoping her dumbness kills them.
- Defied: Jewel makes sure to explain to Fatima what bad decisions could kill someone before she makes them, neutralizing her lethal stupidity.
Back to Lethally Stupid.
