Given that intelligence is an integral part of military education, you'd think they'd teach you how to be smart at the Officers Academy at the Garreg Mach Monastary, but no.
Examples
Multiple routes:
- The evil mage Solon decides to drive a whole bunch of villagers berserk as part of an experiment. The Knights of Seiros naturally take offense to this, and send Byleth and their students to investigate with Jeralt in tow. Solon confronts them...
You'd Expect: For Solon to confront them as himself.
Instead: He does so as Tomas and reveals himself shortly into the battle, tossing away a perfectly good and extremely valuable disguise for no good reason. - Due to the above idiocy from Solon, the protagonists are now aware that Garreg Mach has been infiltrated by people who can impersonate others through magic. Meanwhile, the missing student Monica has somehow been found still alive over a year after her kidnapping at the hands of the very same organization who Solon belonged to. Her personality has completely changed, and she spends all her time getting close with the future Adrestian emperor, Edelgard.
You'd Expect: For Rhea or Seteth to investigate or apprehend the obvious impostor.
Instead: Nobody has any clue where to look for other moles.
The Result: "Monica" (who's actually Kronya) kidnaps a bunch of students for an experiment to transform them into Demonic Beasts, and then backstabs Jeralt. - In all versions of Chapter 14 other than Crimson Flower, Byleth and their allies take up residence at Garreg Mach Monastery. Randolph, a general of the Adrestian Empire, learns of this and decides to defeat them. He enjoys every possible strategic advantage in this situation; the monastery is ass-deep in Imperial or Empire-controlled territory and far away from any potential reinforcements, the only way to supply the monastery runs straight through his army, the monastery is on a mountaintop that will physically exhaust Byleth's troops if they try to come down and fight him, there is no safe avenue of retreat for Byleth's troops, and the heirs of every major noble house in either Faerghus or Leicester (including the heads of state) are trapped in the monastery and make for very valuable bargaining chips to force their nations to surrender.
You'd Expect: Randolph to blockade the monastery, kick back, grab a bottle of champagne, and wait until Byleth and their allies either starve to death or surrender.
Instead: He throws away all of his advantages and charges straight into Byleth's waiting blades, due to a cheap taunt or sheer arrogance.
The Result: Randolph gets himself and all of his troops killed, the anti-Imperial forces score a major morale boost, and the war turns decisively against the Empire.
Even Worse: In the Azure Moon route, Dimitri orders Randolph to be captured, and subjugates Randolph through mental torture by pointing out that he is just as much of a blood-hungry beast as Dimitri is, and that he will personally execute his soldiers one by one so that he can see him break. Byleth then mercifully kills him, but the damage that Dimitri caused upon him was already done. - In Chapter 17 of Azure Moon and Verdant Wind, Adrestia, Faerghus, and Leicester forces march to Gronder Field to have a big battle. Claude, leader of Leicester, is primarily concerned with defeating Adrestia and has nothing to gain by picking a fight with Faerghus, while Dimitri has a massive score to settle with Edelgard but also stands to gain nothing by picking a fight with Leicester. Whichever lord commands the third army (Claude on Azure Moon, Dimitri on Verdant Wind) proceeds to pick up the Conflict and Idiot Balls:
You'd Expect: After Edelgard pulls some ill-explained trick to make it impossible for Claude to tell Adrestian forces from Faerghus forces, Azure Moon Claude to hang back for a bit and scope things out, and make good and damn sure he only attacks Imperial soldiers once he knows who's who.
Instead: He charges in and decides to attack indiscriminately.
You'd Also Expect: Verdant Wind Dimitri and his forces to ignore the Alliance and focus on the target of Dimitri's revenge, Edelgard.
Instead: Dimitri attacks Claude for no readily apparent reason beyond being a target of opportunity, and the Blue Lions just go along with this.
The Result: On the Azure Moon route, Claude and Hilda get the crap beaten out of them, and the non-recruited Leonie, Ignatz, Raphael, and Lysithea as well as several dozen nameless soldiers all get themselves pointlessly killed. On Verdant Wind, Dimitri, who is in complete crazy a-hole mode, ends up getting killed by Adrestian troops offscreen after using up his energy in pursuing Edelgard, and also, the non-recruited Felix, Annette, Mercedes, Sylvain, and Ingrid all end up dead too.
Azure Moon route:
- On the Blue Lions route, Dimitri spends the second quarter of the game or so acting under the reasonable if circumstantial belief that the Flame Emperor was responsible for the Tragedy of Duscur four years prior. Eventually, he unmasks them and discovers that the Flame Emperor's true identity is Edelgard von Hresvelg.
You'd Expect: Dimitri to stop and think for five seconds, and realize that the odds of Edelgard being directly involved just got a whole lot worse considering she was a thirteen-year-old girl at the time.
Instead: He continues to believe her responsible, even after five years have passed. One wonders if his many mental issues damaged his logical reasoning skills until the wake-up call with Rodrigue's death. - Upon the Blue Lions returning to Garreg Mach at the beginning of the time skip...
You'd Expect: One of the others, who compared to Dimitri are of sounder mind, to point out the flaw in his logic and make him see that his vengeance quest against Edelgard is a senseless endeavor, or is at least directed at the wrong person. It's established that Dimitri's obsessive hate is detrimental to the army due to the risks he's willing to take and the fact that many of the forces are put off by his behavior, and while they didn't know her as personally as Dimitri did, they must have known that Edelgard was at least around their age based on interactions with her and her housemates. Heck, why not stage an intervention or act as Dimitri's therapist to help him sort out his mental problems?
Instead: Apparently having the intelligence level of Gondorian Citadel Guard, no one says anything and they all blindly follow Dimitri's whims, such as him having the army make a beeline for Enbarr on what is essentially a suicide mission instead of recapturing Fhirdiad, saving their home and re-bolstering their forces for a better planned and equipped attack. While the player is given the option to suggest going to Fhirdiad first, Dimitri instantly shuts the idea down and everyone blindly agrees. And on top of that, they treat his asshole behavior like it's an everyday normal thing and don't even think to try to help him get better mentally until after Rodrigue gets killed at the end of Chapter 17.
Crimson Flower route:
- On the Crimson Flower route, after King Dimitri’s death at the Tailtean Plains, Rhea has been chased back to Fhirdiad with the Imperial Army in high tail behind her. Edelgard is willing to let Rhea surrender, but she has one final stand against the Black Eagle Strike Force: light Fhirdiad on fire so they will burn inside]].
You’d Think: That Rhea would decline Edelgard’s offer and tell her and her army that they have to enter the city if they hope to defeat her. And when they are inside, THAT’S when Rhea orders the city to be set on fire, catching them by surprise.
Instead: Rhea tells Catherine to set Fhirdiad on fire right then and now, allowing the Black Eagle Strike Force to react to it from outside the city and then more easily traverse through the flames.
