Just Eat Gilligan: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''Gilligan screwed it up! Why don't they just kill him?"
|'''Red Forman''', [[That '70s Show]]}}
{{quote|''[[Memetic Mutation|"If anyone listened to Jack Bauer, the show would be called '3'.]]"''
|'''[[24|Jack Bauer Facts]]'''}}
[[Plot Induced Stupidity]] on a grand scale. An entire show whose continued existence depends on its castmembers ''not'' doing one simple, easy-to-think-of thing that could solve all of their problems and wrap everything up in a neat little package. It's the Helen Keller of [[Genre Blindness]]. It's any [[Fridge Logic|question]] the viewer may have to which the only sensible answer is: "[[Anthropic Principle|Because then there'd be no show]]/movie/novel/game, that's why."
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* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' features several occasions where a bad guy could achieve his goal without an obligatory Duel, but nevertheless does one for some unknown reason. Repeatedly lampshaded in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]''.
{{quote|'''Yami Yugi:''' Did you even consider ''just asking me for it''? I mean, do you have any ''idea'' how much time and money you've wasted with this whole facade? People have ''died'' because you wanted a necklace! ''I killed a gay clown'', for Ra's sake!}}
{{quote|'''Rare Hunter:''' We are here to take your rarest card.
'''Joey:''' You mean you're gonna kick the crap out of me and steal it?
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'''Joey:''' ...wouldn't it be much easier just to skip the first step?
'''Rare Hunter:''' Yes. Yes, it would. ''(proceeds with card game)'' }}
{{quote|'''Marik''': "We are going to challenge him to a card game! But this will be no ordinary card game. This one will take place... On a boat!"
'''Bakura''': "Why a boat?"
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'''Bakura''': Why do we need to play a card game against him?
'''Marik''': "Foolish fool! The card game is integral to the plot. The ''evil'' plot, of which ''I'' am the evil mastermind!" }}
{{quote|'''Bakura''': "Can't we just kill him?"
'''Marik''': "No, and even if we did, those EFF-tards would just censor it." }}
* In ''[[Patlabor]]'', SV2 Division 2 is often derided for the massive collateral damage they cause while fighting crime... and 90% of those are caused by Ohta. Now, his gung-ho, gun-loving attitude is supposed to be played for laughs, and he is a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]] really, but just the same, getting rid of him would've saved much of SV2's troubles.
** Note that in the manga version, Ohta is shown to be less incompetent than his anime counterparts.
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* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'': {{spoiler|Why doesn't Madoka or any of the other girls just wish for something like a universe where everyone is happy and magical girls are unnecessary? It would totally negate all the bad stuff that happens to the girls. Madoka herself tries something like this at the end of the series, but her version has a pointless sacrifice tacked on for some reason.}}
** The reason why {{spoiler|no one else did is fairly simple: Most girls come in ignorant of what's going on, and none of them would have the power to make the wish if they did (Madoka having phenomenal cosmic power thanks to Homura messing with the time-space continuum). Madoka's wish was as limited as it was because incubators are necessary for human civilization. The sacrifice... she probably didn't want to leave something like that to an impersonal cosmic force, and may not have been able to create one.}}
* James, Jesse, and Meowth in ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]''; if they truly wanted to be successful - as legit trainers ''or'' criminals - they would have given up stalking Ash and trying to nab Pikachu after the first season, let alone keep it up for all 26. It's strongly hinted on more than one occassion that this obsession is mostly out of enjoyment; in fact, in their final appearance, they are still determined to pursue Ash to the ends of the Earth, because they feel they - and Ash - would have no real purpose in their lives if they gave up.
== Comic Books ==
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**** The entire plot arc of X-MEN VS. FANTASTIC FOUR was based on the fact that the X-Men ''are'' willing to deal with Doctor Doom for help with mutant power crises, if no other solution is available.
*** Additionally, one of the X-Men's recurring allies -- Forge -- has invented a device that is capable of ''permanently'' neutralizing a mutant's powers. Which means he has already made the basic theoretical leap re: neutralizing mutant powers. At this point, building a version of the device that only acts temporarily, or is conveniently portable and easily reversible, is only a matter of application. So somebody get Forge and Hank McCoy into the lab already. Or ask Reed Richards or Tony Stark for a consult.
* Another X-Men example, the villain Arcade. He himself admits (to his assistant Ms. Locke in the graphic novel ''[[Wolverine/Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection]]'') that he might be better off leaving the X-Men alone:
{{quote|'''Arcade:''' Hey, call me stubborn, call me obsessive, but no matter how many commissions I’m offered, I just can’t resist another try at killing them!}}
:* And to drive the point home, the (visibly angry) mutant heroes crash into his control room two panels later.
* Played for laughs with another X-Men villain, the already [[Laughably Evil]] Mojo. One story starts with him crushingly bored because there is nothing good on television ever since he stopped broadcasting Longshot’s rebellion. (Nobody’s fault but his own, seeing as he holds a monopoly on television in his home dimension.) Of course, simply turning the TV off, as his assistant Major Domo suggests, is out of the question
== Film ==
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*** They did try to tell McGonagall, but she refused to listen and just insisted that the stone was protected well enough. Still, they might have tried harder or tried other teachers.
**** To be fair, McGonagall is the Deputy Headmistress—in Dumbledore's absence she's the most senior teacher in the school. Going to any other staff member would not be likely to do anything useful, as she'd just pull rank on them. As for the kids being more convincing, they're ''eleven''. Plus, McGonagall was being singularly obtuse; since the entire plan of putting the Philosopher's Stone down there was to decoy the villain into going after it, an attack on the Stone should have been ''expected''. And Dumbledore's first absence from the campus in months is the most obvious time for that attack to occur, yet she still considers the kids' story to somehow be intrinsically unbelievable. Really, [[Adults Are Useless|Adults Were Useless]] here.
** In ''[[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (novel)|Goblet of Fire]]'', Voldemort had Barty Crouch Jr. impersonate Moody, arrange so that Harry's name would come out of the Goblet of Fire thus making him one of the participants in the Triwizard Tournament, and help Harry win by rigging the tournament's events and manipulate other characters to to aid him. All of this was done so that Harry would touch the tournament's trophy, which had been turned by Crouch into a portkey that would teleport Harry to Voldemort, who would then use his blood to restore his (Voldemort's) body. Here's the funny thing: Crouch could have turned ''anything'' into the portkey; it didn't have to a object as hard to reach as the trophy. And of course, there's no way Voldermort or Crouch would have been certain that Harry would win the tournament (even with all of their efforts), or that he would be allowed to participate in the first place (what with him being too young and all). Surely there would have been a much less convoluted and more fail-proof way of doing this, like Moody (Crouch) turning a random possession of "his" (like Moody's Sneakoscope) into a portkey, placing it somewhere in his office, calling Harry there to have a talk with him, and then casually saying "Can you pass me that Sneakoscope you see over there?".
**** Don't forget, you can't get off the school grounds with Apparitions and Portkeys (the closest to this is Floo Powder). But the area right around the castle itself, {{spoiler|(since Snape and Malfoy apparate away right as soon as they enter the forest)}} makes me think that Moody had to have Harry get off the school grounds. Since the maze would not be in school grounds, Harry could be taken directly to Voldemort, everyone would think his death was an accident, and Moody would not be suspected at all.
***** 'Not being suspected' is irrelevant to Barty's purpose, as his only reason for being there at all is to set up Harry's kindapping. So long as he can physically carry Harry off of Hogwarts grounds, Barty has no reason to come back after that's done. So he really has no excuse for not assigning Harry a detention in the Forbidden Forest, escorting Harry out there himself, and then sapping the kid over the head and bamfing away with him the instant they're outside the Hogwarts immediate anti-Apparition zone. Heck, there's a gift-wrapped opportunity for him to do that in the series; when Barty Sr. caught up to them at the edge of the Forbidden Forest and tried to warn them. Instead of leading Barty Sr. off to be murdered, he should just have left him there with the people and escorted Harry "to Dumbledore's office", and then yoicks and away. Instead, [[Idiot Ball]].
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[[Category:Contrived Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:Esoteric Trope Names]]
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