What An Idiot / Metal Gear Solid

General / Multiple Works

• Despite being the brains behind the Virtuous Mission and Operation Snake Eater and the mastermind behind all the conflict in the series, Major Zero has been prone to these moments many times.
  • After establishing the Patriots with the other members of FOX, Zero is worried about losing the mascot of his organization, which is Big Boss, either through him leaving the Patriots or through his death.
    You'd Expect: For Zero to talk it out with Big Boss face-to-face and have them come up with a solution that they both will agree on.
    Instead: Zero commissions Para-Medic/Dr. Clark to initiate the Les Enfant Terribles project, which essentially involves creating clones of Big Boss, all without Big Boss's approval or consent.
    As A Result: Big Boss is furious, leaves the Patriots and cuts ties with the FOX members, with EVA and Ocelot following suit. Not only does this result in Big Boss and Zero becoming enemies, but Zero's plans are now more likely to fail.
  • When Zero recruits Pacifica "Paz" Ocean in an attempt to track down Big Boss and convince him to rejoin the Patriots:
    You'd Expect: For Zero to be aware of the possibility that Paz, being a huge target due to being a Cipher spy, could be captured and interrogated into revealing Zero's location, so Zero shouldn't take any chances in giving any information to her. Instead, he should find another way to communicate with her that doesn't involve meeting her in-person, or meet with her at a throwaway location.
    Instead: He gives Paz the address to his safehouse so she could personally meet with him.
    As A Result: Paz is captured and tortured by Skull Face into revealing Zero's location.
  • Skull Face, now knowing Zero's location, conducts a phone call with Zero where he also sends him a winged dagger pin from a fallen friend back in the SAS (actually a fake that is poisoned with a dangerous bioweapon Skull Face was working on).
    You'd Expect: For Zero, who is currently in hiding and likely a huge assassination target, to not accept any gifts. Even if he thinks Skull Face is his "ally", it's still possible that anything from the outside could have been tampered with, and it's better not to take any chances. He could have ordered a few of his minions to check and see if the pin was legitimate and if there was anything suspicious on there.
    Instead: Zero is so blinded by nostalgia that he promptly accepts Skull Face's gift and takes it out to observe it.
    You'd Then Expect: For Zero, a full-grown adult, to be careful around sharp objects.
    Instead: He clumsily pricks his finger, causing the parasites on the fake pin to enter his bloodstream, a fate that could have been avoidable if he was just more careful.
    As A Result: Skull Face wins, and Zero, now facing certain death from the parasites, has to come to terms with the fact that he won't last long enough to reverse the damage that his Patriots activities have done or to rekindle his friendship with Big Boss. His only possible course of action is sending funds to the surviving MSF members and hoping that they will be able to stop what he set in motion.
• Even despite being able to outsmart a lot of characters such as Zero, Skull Face also has these moments himself.
  • Skull Face makes plans to take over Cipher, which would involving having to take out the current leader, Major Zero.
    You'd Expect: For Skull Face to kill Zero right on the spot, ensuring Zero wouldn't know about his treachery and then attempt to stop him.
    Instead: Skull Face pulls a Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat moment and infects Zero with a slow-acting disease that takes several years to actually incapacitate the latter, just so he could sadistically have Zero suffer.
    As A Result: Zero, despite having fallen ill from the parasites, is still physical and mentally capable long enough to take action after Skull Face's betrayal. Zero exiles Skull Face to Africa and then sends funds to the surviving MSF members. Despite Skull face having triumphed during that particular moment, his plans will ultimately fail come Phantom Pain mainly due to Zero’s meddling a decade prior.

Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid:

• When Snake finds the DARPA Chief, the chief tells Snake that Psycho Mantis read his mind in order to figure out the chief's detonation code. But when Snake talks to Kenneth Baker, Baker informs Snake that both he and the DARPA Chief have been fitted with anti-ESP nanomachines, and the terrorists tortured Baker to figure out his code. So how did they get the DARPA Chief's code? They didn't. The Chief Snake met was actually Decoy Octopus, a master of disguise, trying to trick Snake into telling them about another way to activate Metal Gear; Ocelot "accidentally" killed the real Chief in an interrogation.
  You'd Expect: Snake to figure out that the terrorists do not, in fact, have the ability to launch a nuke (without fully activating Metal Gear, that is) or at least ponder how strange all this is.
  Instead: Snake, even after seeing a psychic hallucination of what happened to the DARPA Chief before he arrived, and even after multiple people talk ominously about how the card keys he was given are a one-time-use thing, doesn't catch on, and proceeds to use those card keys to activate Metal Gear, since he THOUGHT it was active already but it actually isn't, and now it IS active. And he can't shut off Metal Gear because the keys only work the one time, and even if they didn't, Liquid climbs into the thing and starts shooting before he can do anything else.
  • Also applies to the people who created REX. Having built a mobile platform capable of launching a Nuclear Warhead, they then had to implement a way to arm and disarm REX. Arming the platform apparently requires the aforementioned pair of detonation codes, shared between two high-ranking officials. Disarming can be achieved with the use of three keycards, which is actually one keycard that can change properties under the right conditions.
    You'd Expect: That the far less secure Fail Safe keycard method can only be used to disarm the Mobile Nuclear Launch Platform.
    Instead: This single keycard, under the right conditions (themselves achievable by a single, unverified person), can be used as a toggle between Armed and Disarmed, with no way to tell which state you are activating at any point.
    As A Result: FOXHOUND are able to get Snake to activate REX using the keycard he was given, simply by pretending that REX was already armed.
  • Even Worse: One major reason this plan goes off without a hitch is because Snake decides to walk up to a room Liquid and Ocelot are conversing in, where they feed him false information knowing he's eavesdropping just to further bait him into arming REX. Why does this work? Because Snake completely fails to notice the security camera overhead that watches that exact position, something emphasized when the pair inside look directly at the footage confirming he's there. On top of that, whether in the original game or the remake all he had to do was look forwards and up to notice it staring at him.
• After Solid Snake meets Meryl, it's obviously clear that she is a rookie and is in way over her head. After assisting Snake with the ambush in the prison, she runs off. Sometime later, the two of them have a chat over the codec and Meryl promises to "be a good girl" by staying put.
  You'd Expect: Meryl to keep her promise by staying out of Snake's way.
  Instead: She changes her mind and wants to prove she has what it takes to be a soldier. Snake is rightfully pissed, telling her that she'll wind up getting herself killed due to her inexperience. Thanks to her stubbornness, the following happens:
  • Meryl gets spotted by some guards during her codec conversation with Snake, forcing her to cut the talk short and run.
  • Meryl gets mind controlled by Psycho Mantis, almost causing her to shoot Snake and then almost killing herself, forcing Snake to knock her out.
  • She gets heavily wounded by Sniper Wolf and is being used as bait to lure Snake out, forcing him to ditch her by going back to the armory so that he can get a sniper rifle of his own to go on even ground with Wolf.
  • If Snake surrenders in Ocelot's torture sequence, Meryl is killed by him.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty:

• Seal Team 10's Bravo Team are trying to stop Dead Cell from taking President Johnson. The Dead Cell member that they are facing is Fortune, famous for not having a single bullet hit her. They try to gun her down, but sure enough, the bullets just curve away from her.
  So you'd think: Bravo team would just realize that they are wasting bullets and run.
  Instead: They continue firing at her, even though it's clear all of the shots are missing.
  As A Result: Fortune, pissed off that Bravo couldn't kill her, blows them all up with her rail gun, thus delaying chances of Johnson's safety.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater:

• During the prologue mission, Snake learns that his mentor, The Boss, has defected to the Soviet Union. Snake is equipped with a tranquilizer pistol, which he has trained on The Boss, that apparently uses Instant Sedation rounds.
  You'd Expect: Snake would just shoot her when it became clear that she was doing a Face–Heel Turn.
  Instead: He doesn't. Worse, the only excuse that's given is that he didn't want to harm his beloved mentor, something the tranq gun wouldn't have done - he instead goes for CQC, which would have been much more painful for her if he wasn't completely outclassed.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain:

• At the beginning of the game, an assassin breaks into the hospital you're currently staying in, strangles your doctor, gets her hands on his gun, and points it at you.
  You'd Expect: Her to blow your damn brains out right then and there. The only reason she was hesitating is because "the other patient saw (her) face", which doesn't seem to matter now that the doctor is out of the picture, the other patient is either distracted or sleeping, and she has you completely at her mercy.
  Instead: She stands there for several seconds not doing anything before attempting to shoot Snake. This gives Ishmael enough time to intercede, via lighting her on fire and punting her out of a window.
• Nine years after the events of Peace Walker, Huey Emmerich decides to rejoin Big Boss, now running the mercenary outfit Diamond Dogs under the name Venom Snake. Upon his return, Snake, Miller and Ocelot make it very clear to Huey that he's very high on all their shitlists, due to their beliefs that Huey was responsible for the demise of Militares Sans Frontieres and the destruction of the old Mother Base.
  You'd Expect: Huey to realise that he's on very thin ice, and stick to working with Diamond Dogs's research unit (or whichever unit the player assigns him to) while not doing anything that might piss off either his old friends or the mercenary army he now lives with.
  Instead: He actively digs himself deeper on two separate occasions. First, he shows the child soldiers Snake rescued earlier how to operate Metal Gear Sahelanthropus, resulting in the kids fleeing the base and stealing the mecha. Then, he proceeds to cross a very significant line by causing a huge parasite outbreak on Mother Base that forces Snake to execute several of his soldiers and staff members. Needless to say, this doesn't improve his standing with Snake, Ocelot or Miller one bit.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance:

• At the end of the Mexico level, the hostage-taking cutscene features some really boneheaded thinking on the part of both the scumbag scientist and Raiden.
  • You'd expect the scientist to: Avoid direct confrontation with the Cyborg Ninja killing machine named Raiden at all costs, booking it in the opposite direction and calling for security to escort him to safety before either sending another team to subdue Raiden or evacuating the lab entirely. Raiden hasn't found him yet, he has a clear path of escape that doesn't involve going through Raiden, and if dozens of military-grade cyborgs couldn't capture Raiden before, then an unaugmented middle-aged lab nerd with a pistol and some hostages isn't going to do any better.
    Instead: The scientist picks up the Villain Ball by waltzing into the room with a gun pointed at George's head while demanding Raiden's unconditional surrender. Sure, he could blow George's brains out if Raiden tries anything funny, and he's presenting Raiden with a Sadistic Choice by flooding the remaining children's cell with lethal levels of chloroform, but aside from his hostages there is literally nothing standing between him and Raiden's blade. He has no backup plan when it turns out that Raiden is willing to risk George's life to take him down, and thus ends up as Half the Man He Used to Be.
  • You'd expect Raiden to: Use his Absurdly Sharp Blade to cut open the glass the instant he sees the gas pumping into the children's cell, instead of uselessly pounding on the glass with the palms of his hands until the scientist shows up with George as a hostage six seconds later. Once Raiden misses that chance, you'd still expect him to either (A), break the glass anyway and count on the scientist knowing better than to kill his only bargaining chip—which even in the worst case could save multiple hostages' lives at the cost of one—or (B), tell George to jerk away from the gun (or let George do it on his own initiative) and use that momentary opening to neatly decapitate the scientist before he can get his gun back on target. Even if a normal human under such pressure might not have the reflexes and precision to kill the bad guy instantly without hitting the hostage in the process, Raiden has already demonstrated such superhuman speed and control with his cyborg body that this ought to be possible for him.
    Instead: Raiden vacillates and wastes precious seconds for the children in the gas chamber by listening to the scientist's Evil Gloating, and when he finally does decide to choose George over them, he wastes the unobstructed shot at the hostage-taker's head (or alternatively, the arm holding the gun) that George gave him by jerking downward, and instead chops right through George's midsection to get the guy behind him, permanently maiming and almost killing George because he either Forgot About His Powers or just didn't care. Even worse, Raiden's team doesn't think to criticize him for unnecessarily cutting the boy in half, leaving them with no choice but to put George back together using cybernetics!

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