What an Idiot!/Video Games

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


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Sometimes, you're railroaded into making a bad decision for the game to proceed. Other times, the game does it for you. Either way, the reaction is still the same: "What an Idiot!!"


Mega Man

  • In both Mega Man 5 and Mega Man 10, Dr. Wily is able to get his technology to Dr. Light's lab, with Dark Man kidnapping Dr. Light in 5 and flying his saucer right into Mega Man's hands in 10.
    You'd expect he exploit this ability to kill he enemies before his attacks. Either shoot Light or remote pilot a bomb into Mega Man.
    Instead: he uses this to divert blame and launches his normal attack. Both times. By this point it's his own fault Mega Man kicks his ass.
    • In Mega Man 9, Wily claims Light is sick and brings Mega Man over to him. Proto Man teleports in and tells Mega Man that Wily is lying.
      You'd expect: Mega Man would realize that 6 of the last 9 games (including this one) involved Wily manipulating things behind the scenes.
      Instead He believes Wily and almost dies when Wily cheap shots him.
      Even Worse Proto Man didn't believe Wily, and yet, rather than cover his naive brother in case Wily tried something, he teleported out.
  • In the first Mega Man X game, Dr. Cain uses Dr. Light's designs for X to create Reploids. These robots are missing design elements that Dr. Cain couldn't understand and haven't gone through the testing period X did to ensure his safety.
    You'd expect: Dr. Cain to make sure that the Reploids were as safe as possible by not doing things like giving them special powers or built-in weapons, making them stupidly huge, and keeping them human shaped. Maybe a hidden set of computer commands that can track and paralyze them from a safe distance. They are robots after all.
    Instead: He goes nuts building the Reploids, who eventually go nuts on humanity.
    In Addition: Nobody thinks to start installing actual security measures into Reploids until X8. They attempt this by using copy chips - chips that contain DNA data of hundreds of existing Reploids - that can change a Reploid's DNA and grant them immunity to the Sigma Virus. But nobody bothered to check what kinds of data were encoded in them, so it wasn't until the events of the game that they found the chips had copies of Sigma's DNA data--which is the virus causing Reploids to go Maverick--installed. Which not only allows them to go Maverick at will, but to steal the identity of anyone they damn well please.
    • Going further from this one is the world's apparent reaction to this incident. After the incident involving the Jakob project, the government orders a shutdown of all copy chip research because by this point it's pretty obvious those chips are hell in micro form.
      You'd expect: That everyone would heed that lesson, never manufacture copy chips again, cancel anything and everything that actually needs one of these copy-generation Reploids to function properly, oh, and kill all the copy-gen 'roids.
      Instead: Not only are we NOT told that all of the copy chip reploids are destroyed, but people are so obsessed with building their ungodly space towers that they eventually put research into these chips BACK UP in spite of the warnings from people who pay attention to history. If Mega Man X Command Mission is anything to go by, they basically ASKED for Colonel Redips.
  • In Maverick Hunter X, X and Zero are investigating a string of mysterious incidents that are flaring across the city, including someone breaking a dangerous Maverick out of jail. Since Zero observes that the guards were defeated by a reploid with very high combat abilities, he suspects that their commander Sigma must be behind it because he's one of the few reploids with specs that high and he suspiciously cannot be contacted.
    You'd Expect: For Zero to tell his friend and partner X about his suspicions, just in case he's right and Sigma tries to back-stab them while they're trying to find the truth. Especially when he, as he says, 'has a bad feeling about this'.
    Instead: Zero says absolutely nothing to his friend, meaning that while he was ready for Sigma to betray them, X wasn't, and he was used as a hostage against X while his partner froze in hesitation and confusion. A few minutes later, both he and X are badly wounded, and Abel City has been blasted with missiles.
  • From the above two games: Vile has captured X using his Ride Armor, and a previously incapacitated Zero leaps onto the back the Armor, where Vile can't aim any attacks at all. There's no indication that Vile can't be shot directly, the original game uses Gameplay and Story Segregation to prevent any easy headshots while the remake has Vile just grab X, preventing the fight altogether.
    You'd expect: Zero to aim his Z-Buster at the back of Vile's head and shoot it off. Zero's shown in the intro stage that he can tap his buster's full attack power much faster than X. That way it's two against one when it's time to fight Sigma.
    Instead: He self-destructs, destroying the armor and saving X, but killing himself in the process. Again, there's no reason to assume Vile is invulnerable when he's there. It's really blatant if this happens when you don't already have the buster upgrade, because Zero will give his own as he dies, showing that it's fully functional the whole damn time.
  • In X2 X has to fight the X-Hunters to reclaim Zero's parts, except the control chip which the Maverick Hunters already have. Having Zero on either side is showed being very important. Canon dictates that there was a black-painted copy of Zero in the villains' possession.
    You'd expect: The X-Hunters to turn over the parts of the fake, and either rig them to explode in enemy HQ, or to take Zero's control chip back to them.
    Instead: They actually turn over Zero's parts, with no attempts to retake them at all.
  • In X4, the Repliforce army is held under suspicion for being responsible for the fall of Sky Lagoon, destroying an entire city and killing millions. The hero you're playing as comes across Colonel, a high-ranking member of Repliforce, in the ruins and asks him to come in for questioning.
    You'd expect Colonel to immediately disarm and come in for questioning, both in a show of good faith for the victims and to clear Repliforce's name.
    Instead He declares that laying down his sword would be dishonorable and leaves the scene, causing all of Repliforce to be declared Mavericks and start a massive war.
    • X4 reveals Sigma and Zero fought when Sigma was a Maverick Hunter. At the time, Zero was an unidentified Maverick berserker who killed a whole hunter unit, and Sigma stepped in personally to take him out. They begin fighting, Sigma has his beam saber and Zero, for whatever reason, isn't using his Z-Buster and dash boots and runs like idiot intending to beat Sigma to death.
      You'd expect: Sigma, whose sole purpose at this point is to take out Mavericks as quickly as possible, immediately use his saber and chop his target into two or more pieces, winning in a Single-Stroke Battle.
      Instead: He plays around, ultimately getting a near fatal beating and becomes infected with the Maverick Virus, which leads to his becoming evil.
  • Also in X5, Lifesavor discovers ominous data that implies that Zero is heavily linked to The Virus somehow, since it increases his power output instead of hurting him. He reports this to Commander Signas, who wisely decides to keep this top secret for now and not to act rashly.
    You'd expect: Lifesavor to follow orders and go back to his job, trusting his level-headed commander to make the best decision on how to move forward, since he's just a medic.
    Instead: Lifesavor goes behind Signas' back and tells his suspicions to X, Zero's best friend, accusing Zero of being dangerous and points out that Zero is unaffected in an area brimming with The Virus. The resulting concern and mistrust between the two friends causes them to fight and nearly get killed by the Big Bad when he takes them by surprise. Lifesavor unsurprisingly hasn't been seen in the games ever since.
  • Mega Man Zero. Dr. Weil has just been captured, after cursing the Dark Elf and creating Omega, who has wiped out 60% of human population and 90% of Reploid population. All mostly For the Evulz.
    You'd expect: His captors deem him too dangerous and irredeemable and just kill him already.
    Instead: They decide to get more 'theatrical', thought he could redeem himself, and gave Weil an escapable Fate Worse Than Death: seal him in a capsule that prevents aging, but keeps his memory intact, hoping to make him repent. Naturally, when some idiot centuries later break the seal down, he becomes more monstrous and vengeful and eventually succeeds in taking over the world and make it so crapsack that it's worse than hell.
    • The Dark Elf is breaking free and X's body is the only thing he knows that can seal it.
      You'd expect: He'd tell someone what he's doing and set up a successor or a cover story.
      Instead: He goes away without so much as a word, resulting in the need to replace him, placing a psychotic Knight Templar clone in charge.
    • Elpizo is making headway into the Dark Elf's seal with the Baby Elves in tow.
      You'd expect: Neo Arcadia would dispatch every available resource including and especially the Guardians to intercept Elpizo.
      Instead: Only Harpuia is sent, while Leviathan and Fafnir dick around waiting to play with Zero.
  • In the anime of Mega Man Star Force, Bob Copper suspects Geo Stelar to be Mega Man. He follows Geo all over the city. Please note that "Mega Man" has the same hair, eyes and voice as Geo. Geo also shows up all the time whenever trouble is brewing... Or after. It's no surprise Copper is suspicious. In a following incident, Copper locks Geo in his car as a test to see if he's Mega Man. Mega Man does show up, and Copper finds Geo inside the car after that. However, anyone could conclude that Geo could have actually escaped, changed into Mega Man, fought the bad guy, and then locked himself in the car again to avoid suspicion. This is what actually happened, as Zack Temple demonstrates the fallacies of "childproof" touch-command door locks by opening the door and letting Geo loose.
    You'd expect: Put two and two together and either accuse Geo of being Mega Man... or continue suspecting him, at least, and tailing him all the time.
    Instead: He immediately assumes Geo to be one of Mega Man's groupies. Cue surprise on Geo's part. Clark Kenting seems to work better than people think... or one can wonder how a man who can come to such ridiculous conclusions actually got onto the force.


Tales Series

  • Tales of the Abyss: Cute Bruiser Anise is secretly being forced by the game's Big Bad to act as his spy inside the party. His leverage over her is her parents, who are being held hostage in the city of Daat under the pretense of being housed inside the religious citadel there. At one point in the game, the party, including Anise, goes to Daat to break out one of their friends, who is being held under heavy guard in a military garrison adjacent to the citadel. This poses no great challenge.
    You'd expect: Her to realize that her allies are more than strong enough to rescue her parents, tell them what's going on, and beg them to stop off and collect two more passengers.
    Instead: She says nothing, and isn't revealed as a traitor until she openly turns on the party and helps the villains to murder the person who is essentially the Pope of the religion that she personally follows - and who, for extra irony, is the person they went to Daat to save the first time they were there.
    Bonus Idiocy: She is, of course, Easily Forgiven. With a side helping of being forgiven for her hypocritical tongue lashing of the main character earlier and her horrible treatment of her Rival who just called her out for it all.
    Extra Bonus Idiocy: There are 3 major powers in the world. She spends the game traveling with the two heirs to one of the powers, the second-in-command of the second power, and the leader of the third power, all of whom dislike the big bad she is controlled by, along with having one of the worlds only flying machines... guess when she takes the opportunity to inform them of what is happening and ask for help.
  • Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Everyone is investigating the cause of recent fires in Izoold. It's been proven that the fires have been caused by a light-frog. A bit of investigating shows that a common factor linking every fire was that seafood gels were involved. However, light-frogs don't normally feed on seafood gels.
    You'd Expect: Everyone figures that if seafood gels are common in each fire, they must be involved somehow, right?
    Instead: Everyone adamantly refuses to acknowledge that this is even possible, despite the fact that the very presence of a light-frog in Izoold is unnatural. Absolutely every time you bring it up, they consistenly tell you how impossible this is, and even when you finally kill the damn thing by baiting it with seafood gels, everyone is absolutely shocked that the only common factor in the fires could've been the cause.
    Additionally: Nazdrovie!
    • In the same game, Ratatosk Emil had used his Ein Soph Aur on Richter, which Ricter reversed with Eternal Recurrance right back at his face. A few cutscenes later, Ratatosk Emil runs into Richter again.
      You'd expect: Emil to remember what happened the last time he tried to use Ein Soph Aur and not use it this time.
      Instead: He uses it again, the predictable happens and it gets reversed right back at him. To top it all off, Ratatosk Emil still has that same shocked look on his face that he did when it was reversed the first time.
  • Towards the halfway point of Tales of Vesperia, Judith discovers that the party's ship's Blastia core is actually a Hermes Blastia and, naturally, destroys it. The rest of the party, who are unaware of the history of Hermes Blastia, demand an explanation.
    You'd Expect: That Judith, who clearly considered the party her friends, would explain how the Hermes Blastia are extremely harmful to the world, and must be destroyed.
    Instead: She refuses to explain anything and outright abandons the party, effectively betraying them. Not only does this cause considerable tension and angst within the party, it also directly leads to the party coming into conflict with the Hunting Blades guild.
    Bonus Idiocy: Judith could've at least waited until the boat docked and they all got off the ship first, or is the word "patience" not in her vocabulary?
    • During the party's trip through the desert, the characters suffer from heat and dehydration.
      You'd Expect: Rita, a mage who can create large quantities of water with magic and regularly does so while fighting enemies, to use this spell to provide refreshments for the party.
      Instead: The party is stuck popping cacti for water until they eventually collapse from heat stroke after the Boss Battle.
  • During Hilda's character segment in Tales of Rebirth, they encounter Naira, who happens to be Hilda's birth mother. However, Naira is aware of a dangerous prophecy and fears it may harm her daughter.
    You'd Expect: Naira to calmly tell her daughter about the prophecy and how she fears it will kill her, and try to encourage her to leave town for her safety.
    Instead: She rejects Hilda, rips up Hilda's treasured Tarot Cards, refuses to talk to her, only revealing things when Tohma shows up, and she performs a Heroic Sacrifice to protect her daughter, which could've been avoided if she had just opened up. Sheesh!

Final Fantasy

  • Final Fantasy VII. The Ancients create a world-destroying object which, if used, summons a giant meteor to come and destroy the Planet. However, they need a way to keep this object from falling into the wrong hands, because if it did, said evildoer could use it to... summon a giant meteor to come and destroy the Planet.
    You'd expect: They wouldn't make such a thing in the first place, since it has no apparent productive use.
    Instead: They make their entire temple itself the world-destroying object, and as a security measure, design it so that anyone who activates the mechanism to shrink the temple down to usable size gets crushed inside. Because villains never have minions that they consider expendable.
    Also: It is revealed in one of the later compilation works that the Planet has a mechanism for taking the lifestream and sending it to space as a last-ditch effort to save itself, so Meteor isn't as self-destructive as it seems at first.
    • The party actually manages to get the world-destroying object back from the villain before he is able to use it. Cloud, having figured out by now that he shouldn't be the one holding onto the thing, gives it to another party member, with instructions that he shouldn't give it to anyone, no matter what.
      You'd expect: This order would be interpreted as "Don't give it to anyone for any reason, *especially me*." Especially since there is no reason at all why the main character would ever need the thing for anything. It's an albatross, and the only reason the party is hanging onto it is to keep Sephiroth from getting his hands on it.
      Instead: The main character predictably falls under the villain's mind control again and casually asks for the world-destroying object back, which is quickly and cheerfully given. He then gives it to the villain, who promptly summons the giant meteor to destroy the world. ...while the Shinra goons that have been chasing them through the whole game are standing RIGHT THERE!!
    • A lesser act of stupidity, but extremely blatant nonetheless. At Wall Market, Cloud and the girls finish "interrogating" Don Corneo and are on their way out. Corneo asks them to wait a second.
      You'd expect: Cloud and the others to just keep walking. Getting that intel was the only reason Tifa went to Corneo in the first place, and Cloud and Aeris were only there for her. Now that they have it, they have no reason to stick around and a very big reason to get to Sector 7 immediately.
      Instead: Cloud stops in his tracks and hangs around long enough for Corneo to drop the trio into a trap door. The time spent fighting Aps and then going through the sewers and the train graveyard could have been better spent saving Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, and getting to the top of the control pillar in time to throw Reno off before he could tamper with the controls. Smooth moves, spiky-haired boy.
  • From the remake of VII: Cloud, Tifa, and Barret have made it to Mako Reactor 5 with the intent to destroy it, only to be confronted by a hologram of Heidegger, and are horrified to discover they have been Lured Into a Trap. Heidegger gloats (as villains tend to do) of the doom awaiting them. Having lured them here, he plans to broadcast their defeat at the hands of a powerful mechanical monster called the Airbuster, in a Public Execution of Bread and Circuses. The heroes have already seen this incomplete device, and stated that should Shinra use it on them, their only chance would be to run. Right now, there is nowhere to run.
    But There's Only One Problem: Just as the broadcast begins and the cameras are rolling, Heidegger aides tell him (as they tried to earlier, but he wasn’t listening) that the Airbuster is only 60% functional. Meaning it is, as the heroes noticed, incomplete. Yep, Heidegger has already proven himself an idiot, but it gets worse.
    You'd Expect: Heidegger would abort the plan, or at least abort the broadcast. He’s lost the element of surprise, and the heroes have ample time to prepare and sabotage the Airbuster before it is operational.
    Instead: Heidegger angrily demands his engineers get the Airbuster online, refusing to abandon his “brilliant” plan. Thus, the party manages to sabotage the mecha (exactly how is up to the player), eliminate the engineers, and ultimately, when they finally confront the slipshod mecha, they are able to defeat it, humiliating Heidegger on live television, resulting in the opposite effect on the populace that he intended and getting him in hot water with President Shinra. The heroes are even able to grab the parts they took from the Airbuster to sabotage it, gaining some valuable crafting materials. Heidegger even tries to sway the situation back in his favor by activating the detonator they had planted on purpose (making the fight a Timed Mission) but they manage to escape, meaning the plan to sabotage the generator still succeeds.
  • In Final Fantasy VIII, Rinoa comes up with plan to neutralize Sorceress Edea's powers during an important military mission being run by her father; a plan that's well meaning but so poorly thought out that Quistis even laughs at it. Rinoa is then told that this is Not a Game and that she should stay where she is.
    You'd expect: Rinoa to either do as she's told or (more likely) make an argument as to why this plan could work during this particular time.
    Instead: She decides to be rebellious and go to the sorceress ALONE so that she can put the neutralizing bracelet on her herself. She does this right before her dad locks the door to her room and Quistis, Zell, and Selphie come in due to Quistis getting her turn to hold the Idiot Ball. Once Rinoa manages to reach the sorceress and enact her plan, it's clear she has no idea what she's even doing.
    • After Quistis shoots down Rinoa's aforementioned plan and then relocates her team to the gate where they'll be stationed during the very important mission, she feels sorry for what she said, and wants to go back and apologize.
      You'd expect: Quistis to realize that she can't abandon her position during a mission just for a personal issue, and that the apology can wait until it's over. Or she leaves her teammates and heads back alone (how many people does it take to throw a switch?) Or she sends Zell or Selphie to apologize for her.
      Instead: They all run back together, get locked in, and only get back in position in the nick of time thanks to a serendipitous hidden passage into the sewers.
  • Final Fantasy IV: After defeating Cagnazzo, the party becomes trapped in a corridor as the walls start to close in on them. They can't escape because the wooden doors are locked.
    You'd Expect: Since the party has not one, but TWO members capable of using Black Magic, at least one of them would think to destroy the doors so they could escape. Or, you know, simply TELEPORT THE PARTY FROM CASTLE BARON ALTOGETHER.
    Instead: Palom and Porom petrify themselves to stop the walls from closing in.
    • Cecil procures the Crystal of Earth in exchange for Rosa's safety. When confronting Golbez on the Tower of Zot to actually make the exchange...
      You'd Expect: Seeing that Golbez hasn't exactly shown himself to be trustworthy -- if nothing else, instead of making the exchange outright he makes you climb his tower full of dangerous enemies first -- that Cecil would insist Golbez either give him Rosa first, agree to make the trade at the same time, or at the very least make sure Rosa is physically present during the exchange.
      Instead: Cecil hands over the crystal immediately, and is surprised when Golbez responds to his demand for Rosa with "Rosa, who's that?"
  • Final Fantasy XII: Judge Ghis manages to extort the Dawn Shard, a piece of deifaced nethicite, out of the party's possession and sends them on their way. The Archadian Empire, who he serves, has the Midlight Shard as their basis for their own manufacturing of nethicite, and the Dusk Shard which they got off of Vaan in an earlier event. So he should know very well what it can do. He also got a demonstration as one of his spells was cancelled when he tried to off the party via You Have Outlived Your Usefulness.
    You'd expect: Judge Ghis to just fly the Leviathan straight back to Archades with it in tow.
    Instead: He hooks it up to his ship's engines to see what kind of power it possessed. It does two things...
    (A) It drives Fran completely berserk, and she tears through Vossler's forces before the party has to step in to shut him down. This is the less significant effect, for reasons soon to be painfully obvious.
    (B) It siphons all the power from the ship's engines in record time. The party escapes aboard the Shiva before everything goes straight to shit, with both the Leviathan and the entire fleet accompanying it being decimated in the equivalent of a thermonuclear blast. Some things just shouldn't be fucked with, but I don't think he cares anymore, what with him being dead and all]].
  • In Final Fantasy V, one of the four Warriors of Dawn, a werewolf named Kelgar, decides to challenge Bartz over a misunderstanding.
    You'd Expect: Bartz to explain himself and tell Kelgar that he's the son of one of his comrades.
    Instead:: Bartz decides to go through with it, and decks him good, sending him flying into his bedroom.
  • Final Fantasy XIII has Serah announcing to her big sister, Lightning, that she is marrying to Snow, whom she has disdain of.
    You'd Expect: Lightning will congratulate her for it and tells her to have a good life with him.
    Instead: She doesn't.
    Even Worse: Because of this, Serah goes with Snow to the Purge Train to prove how wrong she is, setting the events for her crystallization.

Other Games

  • Near the end of Jak II, Metal Kor reveals his true form to Jak and Baron Praxis--a massive, insect/reptile like abomination. He then orders the Baron to give him the Precursor Stone that he had been obsessively searching for the whole game.
    You'd Expect: The Baron to realize he had no chance in beating him, and just surrender the stone.
    Instead: "If the city must die, then we ALL die! ARRAGGH!" The Baron promptly draws his sword and charges at Kor along with his soldiers -- and then promptly gets blasted several feet away, crashing into huge chunks of construction equipment, by an energy blast from Kor.
  • In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, every time Mario finishes off the boss in the castle stage, you see him with Bowser Jr. and there's the airship with Peach right behind him.
    You'd Expect: Mario to attack Bowser Jr., then jump on the airship to get Peach.
    Instead: He just stands there watching them. And then they take off. It's especially jarring when Mario has the propeller hat.
  • Mortal Kombat Armageddon: It's learned in the game's Konquest mode that in the future, the Mortal Kombat tournament will become corrupted and its competitors will grow more numerous and gain more power from tapping into more of the fabric of reality than normal, thus causing The End of the World as We Know It with their infighting.
    You'd Expect: The Elder Gods to stop the tournament right then and there, thus preventing it from being the crux of the future apocalypse.
    Instead: They use a lowly Edenian god to start a Xanatos Roulette, in the hopes of stopping the Armageddon just when it begins to start. Naturally, it backfires on them.
  • Freespace 2: A few missions into the campaign, the GTVA discovers an ancient artificial subspace portal deep in the previously strategically uninteresting Gamma Draconis system, near the site of an ambush by the returning-after-thirty-years Big Bad Shivans. The Alliance is intrigued by this discovery, because of the potential for the technology to be used to revive the collapsed subspace link to Earth, as well as the strategically-important resources that lie in the nebula beyond the portal. Unfortunately, as they explore the other side, they discover Shivans, Shivans, more Shivans, even more Shivans, and ummm... Lots of Shivans, which eventually ends up in an encounter with a massive juggernaut warship, designated Sathanas, that could rip apart an entire fleet in two minutes.
    You'd expect The Alliance to gather as much data as they can about the ancient portal, immediately retreat from the nebula, deactivate the portal, blow up the subspace link, and live happily ever after. The Shivans, of course, are those Omnicidal Maniacs from thirty years ago who had that invulnerable SD Lucifer with the Wave Motion Gun that was used to level all of the cities in the planet of Vasuda, killing four billion Vasudans and rendering the planet uninhabitable. They nearly reached Earth, if not for the heroic efforts of Alliance pilots who managed to destroy the Lucifer in subspace, which caused the collapse of the subspace link to Earth.
    Instead: The Alliance:
    • Kept trying to fight the Shivans inside an unknown system. Never mind that this is a species that almost wiped out everyone in this side of the galaxy thirty years ago. To hell with the fact that it was the Shivans who destroyed the Ancients, a race that had a huge empire and was way more advanced than the Terrans and the Vasudans combined. Despite the fact that the only response to a threat this species knows is more...and bigger.
    • When the biggest ship came around, they tried to fight it by sending a pilot to scan/destroy subsystems while it's being distracted by a way smaller ship that it could swat like a fly.
    • The Big Battle took place in a heavily populated system deep in Alliance territory. They didn't fight the Big Bad in their backyard, they had it break into the house and into the master's bedroom.
    • Logically, with the Shivans having sent their biggest, they could only respond with more. The GTVA still went back inside the nebula. And did they get more. They retreat, but now it's too late. The only option left is to evacuate an entire star system and blow up the jump nodes leading to the Shivan-infested systems to seal them off.
    • In one of the final missions, the Colossus, the biggest and most Badass ship in the Alliance, was engaged by one of the Shivan juggernauts. It has taken down one successfully, but that ship was crippled and this one isn't. Despite Command finally evolving some common sense, ordering the Colossus to retreat, they refused, saying that they didn't want the mission to be in vain or something or other. While the 30,000 officers and crew on that ship might have wanted to be remembered for the Heroic Sacrifice, they'll mostly be remembered for being a bunch of morons.
      • For more context, the Colossus' original mission was to create a diversion for the GTD Bastion on its own suicide mission. The original mission setup called for the Colossus to put up much more of a fight and to dodge around the Sathanas, thus actually buying the Bastion some time. However, in the retail version this is left out and the Colossus passively accepts its fate in 30 seconds or less (often cutting off the Colossus' You Shall Not Pass speech midsentence), making the captain of the Colossus look awfully stupid.
    • Ironically, a dialogue between your wingmen in the first nebula mission heavily foreshadows the later events. Yes, even the Red Shirts think this is a bad idea. One wingman even told the other to shut up, that they're just following orders and they can't do anything about it!

Wingman A: ...I never signed on for hunting Shivans!
Wingman B: Don't kid yourself, we're the ones being hunted, pilot.
Wingman C: Command should shut down that portal and send the Aquitaine back to Deneb. We've got no business being out here!
Wingman D: If Command needs your opinion they'll promote you to Admiral, now shut up and focus.

    • The creepiest thing though, is that empires have been defeated by "lesser" civilizations through a series of bad tactical decisions like this. Ergo, Truth in Television.
    • Corollary: The stealth mission to scan the Sathanas is basically a tactical analysis; where the Sathanas is strong, where it's weak, where best to shoot it, etc. In fact, a mere visual on the thing confirms that it follows a common Shivan design philosophy, in that its main guns are all up front, in sharp contrast to the Colossus and all the newer Terran designs that spread their weapons out to engage multiple smaller ships. Armed with this information, the Alliance actually does something sane, and plans to attack the Sathanas with three smaller but still powerful destroyers, from behind and at the flanks where its main guns can't hit them. However, the Sathanas alters course and successfully enters Alliance space.
      You'd Expect: The Alliance would station its destroyers and their support ships to the sides/above/below where the Sathanas will emerge from jump nodes. Capital ships exiting subspace do so at increasingly faster speeds the larger the ship is and decelerate to their comparatively slow cruise speed; the Sathanas wouldn't have time to fire on ships positioned in such a way.
      Instead: The Alliance panics, and they panic so hard that they loose all semblance of common sense and throw everything nearby in front of the Sathanas as a blockade. A blockade the Sathanas tears through in, literally, minutes, as its beam cannons are several orders of magnitude stronger than the strongest beam cannon fielded by the alliance, and that is actually an overloaded version of the next step down, it doesn't exist in the fiction, and using cannons in this manner will melt them down. Even the Colossus, designed not to engage targets of equal size but many smaller targets, is positioned right in front of the Sathanas. By now, the player has destroyed at least half of the Sathanas' beam cannons; this is the canon situation for when the Collosus engages it, and the Sathanas will still bring it down to somewhere between thirty and fifty-percent hull integrity. In the storyline, it's noted that the Colossus will take several months to repair.
    • As mentioned before, the Sathanas has extreme powerful forward mounted guns.
      You'd Expect: When attacking an enemy, it will try to keep the enemy in front.
      Instead: The ship is passing the Colossus and is unable to continue firing. As a result, the Colossus survives even without further assistance of the player with the above mentioned thirty to fifty-percent hull integrity. Otherwise it would be destroyed.
  • In God of War, Zeus has heard a prophecy that his son will overthrow him, just as he did his father, who had overthrown his own father.
    You'd Expect: He'd just not have sex, thus eliminating any danger of having a son who might overthrow him.
    Instead: He has kids anyway, and instead of simply killing his son as an infant, allows him to grow up. His son eventually does lead a revolt against him. Surprise surprise.
    Of Course: This is Zeus we are talking about here. In every mythological incarnation, his entire life story has been defined by his inability to control his raging libido. The guy is basically Doomed by Canon here.
    • In Chains of Olympus, Persephone has tricked Kratos into giving up his power. She has also set Atlas free and given him Helios' power to destroy the pillar holding up the world.
      You'd Expect: She would stay quiet and not give the game up, allowing the plan to succeed. Failing that, at least kill Kratos so he can't interfere.
      Instead: She gloats about it to Kratos, stating that Kratos' daughter Calliope will also be killed due to the destruction of the pillar. This gives Kratos the resolve to push Calliope away for her sake, reclaim his power and kill Persephone as well as stop the plan.
    • In the first game, Kratos uses Pandora's Box, which contains the power to kill a god, to kill Ares. In III, he looks for it again in order to kill Zeus. Along the way, he slaughters the fuck out of the gods and goddesses he hasn't already killed yet.
      You'd Expect: He realize that not only has he already opened the Box, he's killing deities left and right, and so has said power already; therefore, he can just head straight to Zeus.
      Instead: He wanders all over Olympus looking for it and continues killing gods, bringing natural disasters on the world and practically destroying it, and gaining and losing a Morality Pet.
    • Here's a good one: Kratos has just killed the Sisters of Fate, and can use the threads to travel through time itself.
      You'd Expect: He would use this power to go back and stop himself from killing his wife and child, stopping the nightmares before they ever started.
      Instead: He travels back to the Great War between the Gods and Titans with the intent of bringing them back to start said war back up again and get his revenge on Zeus.
  • In the original Dawn of War campaign, the protagonist has battled his way through aliens and heretics alike to keep the forces of darkness from acquiring a powerful artifact. After most of them are crushed, he stands victorious with the MacGuffin in his hand, ready to destroy it. He also stands staring down the barrels of a lot of semi-friendly alien troops and one of their farseers who begs him not to destroy it. He is understandably reluctant, given that its destruction has been his objective for some time now.
    You'd Expect: The farseer's next words would be, "destroying it will release the powerful demon sealed inside, you unbelievable dumbass" which would be helpful, fulfill her agenda on the planet, ensure that the vast majority of her troops won't have died in vain, avoid releasing a Greater Demon and still fill her contractual quota of insulting the Puny Earthlings. If he ignores her, she can have the satisfaction of saying "I told you so", should she live long enough.
    Instead: The equally wordy but far less useful, "you know not what you do! We cannot allow this..." followed by her ordering her troops to shoot him. The artifact is broken in the ensuing firefight, and Hilarity Ensues.
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: It's a fun game, but the opening is pretty ridiculous. The Emperor knows the exact minute of his own assassination. He also knows that once he dies, the Legions of Hell will invade unless one of his offspring wears the magical MacGuffin around his neck and is coronated as the new Emperor. Fortunately, he has legions of loyal soldiers and secret agents and the resources of an entire continent at his command. He also has a network of tunnels underneath his palace in case he needs to escape.
    You'd expect: That he would surround himself and his heirs with every soldier at his command near the appointed time so they can kill every assassin who comes near. Even if the Emperor dies, he has at least three legitimate and one illegitimate heir who can take his place. And just in case, he would have his agents routinely patrol the escape tunnels and run emergency escape drills.
    Or at least: He could put on some goddamned armor. This is the EMPEROR, the single most important man in the entire game world, his very blood holds keys to defeat giant horrible demons and he is naturally attuned to magical amulets and so on and so forth. He has, at his disposal, a full and VERY POWERFUL army of high-level guards (STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM) AND mages. He has a vast pool of resources, both financial and metaphysical. With a fraction of those resources, you, the player, are able to enchant everyday leather and metal armor into juggernaut gear that can render you functionally invincible.
    Instead: He doesn't inform his bodyguards of the fact that he knows he's going to die. He lets his bodyguards stumble blindly through the tunnels to a dead end, where he gets knifed in his completely unarmored back. He entrusts the MacGuffin to a complete stranger who was imprisoned in the city dungeons, hoping that the stranger can find his last remaining heir.
  • Armored Core: Nexus. Navis, a smaller-scale Corporation, activates a Lost Technology superweapon to keep their territory safe from the larger encroaching Corporations. This weapon is the robotic equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction. So, of course, it promptly goes nuts on them upon activation and destroys the very people who activated it, killing the Navis executives, leaving Navis in ruins and almost all of its employees and resources dead and destroyed.
    You'd Expect: The other Corporations, seeing Navis get completely wiped off the map by willy-nilly activating giant freakin' robots, would be a heck of a lot more cautious with the lost weapons that they found, and that they wouldn't ever activate those weapons without knowing exactly what those weapons did, what those weapons were capable of, and sure as all heaven not without being able to control them.
    Instead: Kisaragi, another Mega Corp that is apparently completely Genre Blind, does the exact same thing in the exact same game. Only this time, not only do they activate a copy of That One Boss of the entire Armored Core series (the AI of which has a Kill'Em All and Murder Is the Best Solution mentality no less), but they also activate hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of suicide weapons, all of which promptly go kamikaze on the rest of the Corporations and humanity in general. Oh, and it also gets the protagonist of the game, you, killed.
  • Grand Theft Auto Vice City: Tommy Vercetti is a low level Mook sent to Vice City in order to negotiate a major drug deal with a cartel. As expected, a rival cartel ambushes the deal, resulting in both the drugs and the money being stolen in the chaos. This makes Sonny Forelli, his boss, extremely angry and he's spends the rest of the game getting angrier and angrier at the main character for not being able to get the money back. During this time, Tommy starts to make connections of his own and starts to make his own little empire in Vice City, coming into contact with a substantial chunk of change and enough drugs to make the original deal look like chump change.
    You'd expect: Tommy would at one point tell his boss that he'll fully pay him back for everything lost in the initial ambush, since even a quarter of the way through the game, he has enough money to do this, and then offer a rendezvous to give the money. Even if he didn't have all the money, he could at the very least persuade one of his many powerful friends to help him out in this situation just to get the mob boss off his back and maybe even have some of the mob boss' assets to help him out once things cool down.
    Instead: Tommy seems very nonchalant during all of this, every time Sonny demands money, Tommy either says nothing to help his situation, or just saying he'll "figure out a way" to pay him back. He literally does absolutely nothing to help out the situation. As expected, near the end of the game, Sonny, finally fed up, sends hitmen to extract the money from Tommy's friends, and after those are dispatched the boss openly declares war on Tommy resulting in the final mission where literally most of his friends abandon him, leaving him to fight off the entire force by himself.
  • Sherlock Holmes versus Arsene Lupin. Pretty soon in the adventure, Watson gets followed by a journalist with a French-sounding name.
    You'd expect: Watson to tell Holmes, or at least take five seconds to figure out the journalist's name, which he has on a business card, is an anagram of Arsene Lupin, French master of disguise who's used an anagram as a name all of five minutes before you meet this journalist.
    Instead: Watson plays the perfect Unwitting Pawn and lets Lupin steal the Rosetta stone.
  • In Half Life 2, Alyx and Gordon have just broken into a high security prison to rescue Alyx's father. They learn that Dr. Mossman is a traitor who is a Well-Intentioned Extremist when it comes to keeping Alyx's father out of harm's way. Alyx confronts the traitor, and takes this person along to the teleporter that will be their escape method.
    You'd expect: Alyx to just enter the coordinates herself, or at the very least ensure that Dr. Mossman isn't in the same teleportation group as her father. Keep in mind, that this is less then a minute after she called this person out for being a traitor.
    Instead: She has the known traitor do it, then acts surprised that Dr. Mossman entered the wrong coordinates and kidnaps her father.
    To Be Fair: It's entirely possible that Dr. Mossman is the only person in the room capable of operating the machine; there's no reason that a Combine teleporter and Dr. Vance's version would use identical coordinate systems for targeting. In fact, its extremely likely that they wouldn't. There is also that they have to teleport out immediately, as there is a horde of angry Combine in the process of breaking through the door into the teleport room.
  • In Halo 2 there is a Covenant mission to eradicate an heretic faction that resides in a Forerunner structure that is literaly hanging from a cable above a gas giant. The Covenant has a huge army assembled near the planet and the heretics just numbers in the dozens and possess only a handful of Banshees and one Seraph fighter.
    You'd expect: The Covenant fleet to fire a blast from on of their cruisers to destabilize the heretic structure and let them fall to their deaths. It wouldn't cost more than a plasma charge or two.
    Instead: They sent three Phantoms loaded with Spec Ops Elites and Grunts, an Arbiter and the Brute Chieftain to infiltrate the structure and kill the heretic leader while a deadly storm approaches.
    :Of Course: Simply vaporizing the structure from a distance would have left them forever uncertain whether or not the heretic leader was actually inside at the time. There's a reason we actually sent the SEALs into Osama bin Laden's house instead of just smart-bombing it.
    • If the player is not careful he/she could get the Arbiter's squad killed and replaced ever so often. After a long search the heretic leader releases Flood specimens stored in the structure to hamper the Arbiter's advance and increasing the chances of casualties. Eventually, the heretic leader seals himself inside a shield barrier and lets the Arbiter and his companions to die in an approaching storm. Finally using his head, the Arbiter decides to sever the cable holding the structure to get rid of the heretics and the Flood for good. It's not like he can go anywhere with the Covenant fleet so near.
      You'd expect: The Covenant fleet still fire on the structure or just have the weapons of the three Phantoms floating around to fire on the cable and wait for anyone to come out of the falling structure and blow it out of the sky. Or just cut the cable and go back to the fleet; doubtfully a Seraph fighter is capable of Slipspace jumping.
      Instead: After the Arbiter climbs all the way to the top and cuts the cable with his energy sword the structure falls and the Phantoms blindly follow it to the depts of the gas giant. The Arbiter - defiying the laws of gravity - manages to kill the heretic leader and escapes in the last moment.
  • In Knights of the Old Republic it's implied that Revan never wanted to take over the Republic, just prepare it for the upcoming war with the True Sith.
    You'd expect: Revan to convince the Republic of the coming threat, using his/her status as a war hero to gain respect and trust and then offer the ridiculously large fleet, created by the Star Forge, to them and spend the next few years helping to train their soldiers in combat and instruct them in how to use the technology created by the Star Forge, or striking at the True Sith in their galaxy, meaning there would be no collateral damage to the Republic itself, while they are still preparing to attack.
    Instead: Revan wages war against the Republic, supposedly to gain control even though as explained, Revan should really have enough respect to get the Republic to work with him/her. Revan then up and leaves to go and fight the True Sith, who have now had plenty of time to prepare for war, while the Republic is now bankrupt and on the verge of collapse having spent so much resources on the war against Revan. And this guy is meant to be a master tactician...
    To Be Fair: By the time Revan has first used the Star Forge he's already corrupted by the Dark Side so he doesn't want to help the Republic, he wants to take it over. Furthermore, his plan for taking over the Republic is very precisely calculated to avoid actually damaging the Republic's economy or infrastructure to any great extent so that by the time he does take it over, it'll still be in prime shape to help build his anti-Sith war machine. The problem is that Revan loses control of the Sith about halfway through his plan when Malak backstabs him and takes over, and Malak is a meatheaded idiot who never really understood what Revan's strategy was intended to be so he smashes up the entire Republic in the process of trying to dominate it.
    • As for the second game, there's the Jedi Masters. Following the end of the war and Revan's departure, Sith assassins start knocking off Jedi from the shadows. Unable to find the source, the Jedi gather in an attempt at mass precognition. This draws the attention of Nihilus, who kills them all easily. Thus the Masters go into hiding, hoping to lull the enemy into a false sense of security so they'll emerge. Years pass with absolutely zero success, until the Exile shows up and draws their attention. She sets about gathering the masters to deal with this.
      You'd Expect: That despite all the animosity between them, the Masters would see reason and agree to help. After all, they've have nothing to show for their work while the Exile manages to save two entire planets (admittedly, one of those planets was originally doomed because of her, but she fixed it), the settlement on Dantoonie, and roots out the source of the bounty of Jedi.
      Instead: Faced with pretty much direct evidence that the Sith have no only returned but are actively undermining the (as mentioned) fragile-as-hell Republic, they decide to do nothing. Having gone to all the trouble of gathering on Dantooine, they decide to stick their heads back up their asses and hope for the best while the Republic dies around them. To make matters worse, they decide to punish the Exile by stripping her of the Force again (even though they weren't responsible the first time, they almost surely would have tried) rather than help her when she's being actively pursued by assassins. Worst Jedi ever!
      And the icing on the cake is: All three of them, in some way, had pretty much ignored their original idea and were trying, in their own way, to get to the bottom of the problem. Or, in the case of Zez-Kai Ell, had come to understand that maybe they were wrong to begin with. Even if they were stumbling around in the dark, they were at least trying. This means that, in the time it took for them to reach Dantooine, they actually managed to unlearn everything they had done in their self-imposed exile.
  • In Phantasy Star II, the party is unable to use the access tunnel leading to the Biosystems Labs because of the bandit Darum, who went a little nuts after his daughter Teim was kidnapped. They retrieve his daughter, put a veil on her, and go to the tunnel.
    You'd expect: Teim would throw off her veil, yell, "Daddy, it's me!" and hope he recognizes her.
    Instead: She walks up to Darum in the veil. When he demands her money, she haughtily refuses, and he cuts her down. Then he kills himself on realizing what he's done, at which point Rolf sermonizes about the increasing evil of the world. You know, Rolf, you could've prevented this one!
  • BioShock (series): Mad Scientist Dr. Suchong is put in charge of developing a plasmid that will make Big Daddies protect Little Sisters whenever the Little Sisters are in harm's way.
    You'd expect: That Suchong would not do anything to harm the Little Sisters, in the case that his research were successful.
    Instead: While complaining about the initial failures of his creation, he slaps a Little Sister that was trying to get his attention. It ends up revealing his work was, in fact, successful when he gets drilled to his desk by a suddenly-protective Big Daddy.
  • Warcraft III has Medivh trying to redeem his earlier evils by preventing a demonic invasion. He knows what's going to happen and warns every leader he can reach.
    You'd expect Medivh to be specific and detailed to the leaders about the incoming invasion, and to try and convince the orcs to make peace with the Alliance. He'd tell Arthas exactly how the Scourge works to prevent Lordareon falling, and would try his hardest to fight the Legion if no one believed him.
    Instead Medivh makes non specific, vaguely threatening prophecies, and demand leaders follow instructions with logical fallacies apparent when one knows everything. Medivh becomes angry and petty when he's not immediately obeyed, and encourages the orcs to run away from their punishment, prompting the Alliance to pursue them in the expansion. Medivh also never helps the orcs prepare for Kalimdor, directly leading to an important demigod being killed.
  • In Skies of Arcadia, during the aerial battle for Yafutoma between the Armada and the Tenkou, the heroes attempt to, and succeed in, locating their captured ship. They attempt a boarding action, preparing to go side-to-side by a distance of meters with this airship, with a full crew of hostile soldiers.
    You'd expect the Delphinus' new management to attempt evasive action, any evasive action or movement at all, or fire on the pirate ship as it makes itself a fat, slow and impossible to miss target by closing in.
    Instead the ship remains completely motionless in midair, obligingly allowing the air pirates to pull up, leap aboard, and presumably for the ship to fly off again without shooting at it once or trying to maneuver or follow the entire time. Way to go, guys. Way to go.
  • Army of Two has a scene that actually lampshades this Trope. Salem and Rios have been set up as the fall guys after they unwittingly killed a US senator to help their corrupt boss back S&C get him out of the picture so a bill to privatize the military will pass. They board a cargo plane to head back to Miami to stop him. But Phillip Cylde, crazy as hell mercenary, who has apparently cut his mouth to create a sick Joker-esque smile, has snuck aboard the plane.
    You'd Expect Clyde to simply kill Rios and Salem while they are sleeping and try everything possible to avoid using guns... in a flying airplane. Or maybe even just planting a time bomb and jumping out of the plane before it goes off.
    Instead He not only kills the pilots of the plane instead of his intended targets, he delays shooting them to gloat at how much he's going to enjoy killing them. This would be fine as he took Salem as a hostage and pretty much had control of the situation. But the US Air Force noticed the dead pilots, figured it was an approaching terrorist attack and started shooting at the plane. This gives Salem and Rios the chance to overpower Clyde and get themselves to cover. Clyde starts shooting wildly damaging the plane even further. Then Clyde throws a grenade, a short-sighted move in general. But it only gets worse as another hit from the US Air Force manages to roll the grenade back at him. Rios then lampshades Clyde's actions up to this point by saying "What an Idiot" and he and Salem head for the hovercraft at the back of the plane. But Clyde isn't done, he actually decides to fire a Javelin missile inside the plane. He apparently doesn't know how to use its "fire and forget" technology 'cause he misses and manages to help Rios and Salem by blasting open the jammed cargo door behind them. Rios and Salem escape on the hovercraft while Clyde ends up in the drink with the crashing plane. He survives, but he seriously screwed up his mission in so many ways.
  • In Fable 2, Lucien needs to gather the three heroes and absorb their power in order to use the Tattered Spire. Obviously, you, as the hero, has to stop him.
    You'd Expect The hero to kill one of the heroes. The Hero of Skill is a mass murderer, extremely narcissistic, and a total Jerkass all around.
    Instead The hero spends over a decade gathering the heroes in order to perform a ritual in order to forge an artifact that removes Lucien's power after he performs his version of the ritual with the same heroes. Not only does this plan only work if Lucien captures the heroes after you already used them, but a ton of very bad things happened as you wasted all of that time.
  • Near the end of Silent Hill 2, James is confronted by Eddie, an overweight and mentally disturbed man who's been mocked by his peers for his entire life. Eddie is surrounded by corpses, wielding a revolver, and delivering a monologue about how everyone is made equal in death, including the fact that he's going to murder the next person who so much as looks at him funny. Eddie then says a friendly 'goodbye' to James and turns around to leave the room.
    You'd Expect James to say nothing about the crazy, bid Eddie a fond farewell and get the hell out of there.
    Instead, James asks Eddie if he's gone nuts. Eddie responds about as well as you'd expect.
    You'd Further Expect James to easily justify his killing of Eddie as self-defense, albeit brought on by James' inability to keep his fool mouth shut.
    Instead, James promptly freaks out about killing a human being. This reaction somewhat justifies his not simply shooting the obviously murderously insane Eddie in the back when he had the chance, but it still makes no real sense overall.
  • Imperator Ix, after taking a thrashing from the entirety of Sonic the Hedgehog's team, taps the Villain Ball long enough to blurt out how he plans to conquer the world like he tried four thousand years ago. Procurator Shade, who has demonstrated tactical competence up to that point, happened to be within earshot and immediately questioned his motives.
    You'd expect Ix to apologize to Shade, grab the Master Emerald, return to the Nocturne with Shade in tow, and explain to her the necessity of such actions.
    Instead Ix firmly grasps the Villain Ball, cuts her off with a very loud "SILENCE!!" and blasts her off the island. He gets away with the Master Emerald anyway, but Knuckles saves Shade's bacon, having recovered from the shock that the Nocturnus are still alive after all this time. This incident gives Shade all the reason she needs to switch allegiences.
  • Super Robot Wars Original Generation 2: Lee Linjun, who turned to the Shadow Mirrors' side to show up his former classmate Tetsuya Onodera, believing him (and especially him) and his forces to be inferior to fight off the invasion of the Einst and Inspectors, has his forces trounced by those of said classmate.
    You'd expect Lee to get the hell out of there and recoup his losses. At the same time, he'd humbly concede that Tetsuya and his forces to be quite strong to defend the Earth after all. [1]
    Instead He takes his ship, the Shirogane, and attempts to use it to ram Tetsuya's ship, the Kurogane. Unfortunately, as Tetsuya points out, he failed to notice the drill in front of the Kurogane. Naturally, this doesn't end well for Lee.
    • Before this, there's a mission where you have to defend a base against enemies that will destroy it if they so much as brush the outside wall.
      You'd Think Lee would use the guns on his ship to shoot at said enemies.
      Instead he's The Load for the entire mission.
  • Metroid: Other M: Samus is on her way to Sector Zero when, right as she gets to the entrance, a Metroid comes out of hiding to greet our heroine. Adam happens to be right behind them, freeze gun in hand.
    You'd Expect either Adam or Samus would freeze the damn thing and save both of their hides from being Metroid chow, or Adam asks Samus to stop and shoot the Metroid.
    Instead Adam SHOOTS Samus with the most powerful round of ammo he had, leaving Samus utterly powerless and scared suitless, not even bothering to shoot the Metroid until it was right about to ATTACK SAMUS! The only ounce justification he had for shooting Samus was to stop her from going into Sector Zero, something that could have easily been a lot less life-threatening and damaging if he simply asked her to stop. It might be just as stupid, but it would have made tons more sense and a lot less fucked up.
    It Gets Worse If that turn of events didn't already turn heads, this'll do the trick. Instead of reacting with confusion and anger like a normal person's reaction to friendly fire, Samus pretty much accepts this. She even mourns his death. Would you mourn a guy who shot you for no real reason?
    • Midway through the game, Samus is asked by her former commanding officer, Adam Malkovich, to go into an area that's superheated and filled with lava.
      You'd Expect: No problem. Considering the game notably averted Bag of Spilling and Samus has all her upgrades from the previous game, all she has to do is turn on her Varia/Gravity Suit and walk through without fear of being injured by the heat. Better yet, while Adam has restricted her use of weapons, there should be nothing stopping her from employing her defensive suit capabilities, especially in cases where her life is in danger.
      Instead: She doesn't, and willingly runs through the superheated area taking damage for no discernible reason, until Adam finally tells her to activate her Varia Suit when she comes face to face with a boss and is forced into a protracted battle. Even more bizarrely, she "authorizes" other technologies when Adam isn't around (like the Space Jump) - there shouldn't have been anything stopping her from turning her suit on.
  • Command & Conquer 3: The forces of GDI have managed to finally lay siege to Temple Prime, HQ for the Brotherhood of Nod and assumed location of the Nod mastermind/Messianic figure, Kane. Nod has the nasty habit of outsmarting GDI at every turn; oftentimes twisting GDI's actions against the organization. GDI's leading general advises that GDI forces attempt to hold the siege until Nod forces surrender. GDI's Director demands that they use GDI's Ion Cannon. The general notes that Nod was storing weaponized Green Rocks with enormous explosive potential in the facility; and suggests they consult their Green Rock Expert. Turns out, he's been kidnapped by Nod.
    You'd Expect The director to realize that these events might be related, and the risk of falling into yet another scenario where Nod tricks GDI into doing something terrible; therefore erring on the side of caution with the Death Ray.
    Instead The director orders the Ion Cannon be used, and Nod's Green Rock weapon explodes, causing a chain reaction with other Green Rocks in the area. This leads to a rather large explosion that more or less erases Eastern Europe from existence; the director notes that the area was primarily Nod-controlled.
    • It's also worth noting that the Director (Redmond Boyle, played magnificently sleazily by Billy Dee Williams) is implied to be an idiot, and later in the game, shows himself to be a fanatic of the degree of "So long as Nod is destroyed, do whatever action is necessary, even if it causes huge casualties on our side"
  • Persona 4: Dojima, the player character's uncle, finds a letter addressed to said character from a serial killer who's had the local police department tied up for the whole game. This letter telling him, basically, that if he rescues any more people then somebody close to him will die.
    You'd expect Dojima to watch his own family, the only people who could possibly classify as "close to [the player character]", while learning the truth about what's going on from his nephew.
    Instead Dojima admittedly tries the latter... By taking his nephew in to the police station, thereby taking in for interrogation the only person he knows could logically not only not be the murderer, but may well be the only one who can stop the murders. During this, he leaves his daughter Nanako home alone... As in a person who perfectly fits the bill for who the murderer is going to target. Naturally, while the two are in the police station, Nanako is kidnapped by the murderer, who is quickly identified as somebody who is quite evidently not Dojima's nephew.

And Even Worse one of the options you do get is the ability to come clean and tell Dojima about your ability to go into the world behind the TV. He quite naturally doesn't believe you, and in fact becomes even more suspicious now that you have, in his mind, confirmed that you are lying to him. Too bad there isn't a TV right there in the room that the MC could walk over to and, I don't know, just stick his hand into to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is telling the truth about the murders. Oh. Wait. There freaking is!

    • Another instance, admittedly retrospective: Taro Namatame has been kidnapping people throughout the entire game and throwing them into the Television, as he believes that this will keep them safe from someone trying to kill them.
      You'd Expect that he would do some sort of reconnaissance as to this new place, as even a cursory glance will reveal that it is infested with monsters and generally not a happy place. Or at least that he'd check up on the people he kidnapped.
      Instead, he just chucks them in there and does nothing else, meaning that your party has to go in and rescue them.
  • In The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf, surprisingly enough, gets one of these. After Link meets Zelda in the Temple of Time and obtains the light arrows from her, he traps Zelda inside a crystal so that he can get the triforce of wisdom.
    You'd Expect He would trap Link too while he was distracted by the monologuing, obtaining all three triforce parts and being able to rule the kingdom of Hyrule without any opposition.
    Instead He allows Link to enter his castle, and gets defeated twice, and then trapped in another dimension.
    • A similar situation happens in The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess; after Link and Midna retrieve the Fused Shadow from the Lakebed Temple, Zant ambushes the two, takes the remaining Fused Shadow pieces and uses Lanayru to expose Midna to the light, leaving her near death.
      You'd Expect he would give Link a similar treatment.
      Instead, Zant puts a curse on Link that leaves him in his wolf form and.....that's it. Despite being a wolf, Link is still in fighting condition, therefore being able to not only find a way to return to his human form and save Midna, but also allows them to kick Zant's ass later on in the game.
  • The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker: Link, Tetra/Zelda, King Daphnes and Ganondorf are atop Ganon's tower. Tetra's out cold, Link barely conscious and Ganondorf thus managed to snatch their Triforce pieces and reassemble the whole Triforce. Now, he must only touch it and all his wishes will come true- Except King Daphnes beats him to it and touches the thing first.
    You'd Expect The King would wish Ganondorf out of existence, heal Tetra's and Link's wounds and restore Hyrule for the people of the (apparently fishless, you mind) Great Sea to live in.
    Instead He wishes for Hyrule to be rendered Lost Forever. Yeah, nothing else, just washing away this perfectly nice kingdom for no real reason, while Link and Tetra (still barely able to stand on their feet), have to battle Ganondorf, who now suffers a Villainous Breakdown, since his plans are derailed. Even made worse by the fact that, after the battle is won, Ganondorf dead and Link visibly wounded, the king walks up to the kids and apologizes that they've got to nothing left except to just carry on with the hope they've got now. When he, technically, could have given them Hyrule. Like the goddesses intended him to. It was the whole freakin' purpose his soul was still around. No wonder that the The King of Hyrule is a Jerk comics are so popular...
  • In The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, Link has learned that Ghirahim is pretty damn angry about losing Zelda and Impa to the Gate of Time in Lanayru province, which Impa explicitly destroyed to prevent pursuit - this is learned because Ghirahim banters on about the second Gate of Time prior to the battle at the Fire Sanctuary. Link activated the Gate of Time in Faron province to learn about the Triforce and Zelda's role in current events, and not only did he manage to get his hands on the Triforce in its entirety, but Link also uses it as it was intended by Zelda - to utterly annihilate the Imprisoned beyond all hope of recovery. Zelda is scheduled to wake up shortly due to her seal no longer being needed, but Ghirahim is still out there.
    You'd expect Link to blow up the Faron Gate of Time or ask old lady Impa to dismiss the gate, since Hylia's loyalists no longer have a use for it. Ghirahim explicitly wanted to know about this gate so he could get his hands on Zelda, after all, and with him at large, leaving the Gate operational is a bad thing.
    Instead Link walks up to greet Zelda as she awakens from her crystallized sleep. If you still couldn't put two and two together by now, Ghirahim kidnaps Zelda, drags her through the Gate of Time, and offers up her soul to Demise in sacrifice - and since Zelda's soul is Hylia's, Demise awakens from his thousand-year imprisonment 999 years early. You know, guys, you could have prevented this whopper!
  • Mercenaries 2: Corrupt Corporate Executive Ramon Solano hires the player to break a Venezuelan general who had attempted a coup out of jail. Airstrikes are called in, tanks are used, stuff blows up, mission accomplished.
    You'd Expect Solano thanks the merc for a job well done, pays them, sends them on their way, and goes on to take over the country and elevate it's status to that of a world power.
    Instead He turns on the player and has them shot. Cue the Roaring Rampage of Revenge that ends with Venezuela getting torn up and Solano himself dead.
    For Added Idiocy The merc Solano hired was the mercenary that had previously been involved in the Song Initiative. During that situation, the mercenary showed their aptitude at singlehandedly taking down a military dictatorship for money.
  • Fate/stay night, Heavens Feel route. Sakura has had her internal mana eating parasite activated, causing a race against time to kill Zouken before he can screw with her head and turn him to his side. The plan is highly contingent on Sakura's state of mind staying intact.
    You'd Expect Shirou and Rider would go out of their way to clear up Sakura's very obvious doubts and insecurities and pay more attention to what she says. Tohsaka could emphasize their family bonds. Or something. But not be a total Jerkass.
    Instead Rider hides from Shirou and Tohsaka and doesn't explain how Sakura is feeling. Shirou tunes out when Sakura tries to tell him important things, and doesn't really mention that he loves her and his reaction to Tohsaka does not mean he likes her more than Sakura. Tohsaka goes out of her way to belittle her and deride Sakura's worthlessness and willpower after the game explicitly stated her will cannot be broken by people she distrusts. Well, it had to get worse somehow and an Idiot Plot is better than mass Diabolus Ex Machina.
    • Rider is never entirely sure of Shirou or Rin's commitment, mainly hanging out to make sure they don't try to mercy-kill Sakura. Rin...doesn't really have any excuse, beyond immensely and counterproductively overreacting based on her own guilt (she does eventually realize how extraordinarily stupid she'd been). Shirou does eventually unmistakably communicate his love to Sakura (part of the fault was hers for never quite realizing that Shirou's not just being his "friend-to-everyone" helpful self) and thus erase and downplay most of her insecurities...which inadvertently catalyzes her conversion to Dark Sakura (which was probably the safest circumstance; thanks Shinji!).
  • 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 Cheif's code? They didn't. The Chief Snake met was actually Decoy Octopus, a master of disguise, and 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 or at least ponder how strange all this is.
    Instead Snake doesn't catch on, and proceeds to use the card key he has 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, Liquid climbs into the thing and starts shooting before he gets the chance.
  • Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. This game seems to be just filled with moments where Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him becomes painfully apparent. One outstanding example near the end of the game has Meryl and Johnny and Raiden each facing off against FRO Gs, Liquid's elite troopers. The former two have limited ammunition, and are across a room, and the latter is armed only with a sword.
    You'd Expect: In the case of the former, the FRO Gs would just fire from afar and use their ability to cling to walls to their advantage, and in the case of the latter, they would simply use their guns and have Raiden perforated.
    Instead: The armed FRO Gs stupidly rush the pair, not even bothering to shoot until they get in close, and use all of one flash grenade, and the unit cornering Raiden is, for some unknown reason, armed only with machetes. They proceed to get brutally slaughtered, and only Raiden's fatigue, numbers and a lucky rush prevents him from massacring them entirely.
    • Another example also occurs earlier in the game. Liquid is about to board a helicopter, and Solid Snake is only paces away, aiming at him.
      You'd Expect: Well, that Solid Snake shoots him.
      Instead: Snake hesitates while Liquid talks, and is subsequently incapacitated by the device he activates for his troubles.
    • Otacon is attracted to Naomi, the person who injected his most precious person and partner of over a decade Snake with the FOXDIE virus.
      You'd Expect: Otacon to carry at least a bit of a grudge for that.
      Instead: He falls in love with her.
      • Otacon has a bad history with love. He once was in love with Sniper Wolf from Metal Gear Solid. She was in charge of holding him hostage.
  • StarCraft: The UED forces find on Tarsonis an abandoned Psi Disrupter build by the confederates. This device is able to break the zerg's psychic link, preventing the Overmind and its cerebrates to control zergs. Stukov says that it's a great tool for the UED mission (to ensalve the Overmind) while Duran prefer to destroy it, since "If it falls in Mengsk's hands, it could control the zerg as well in combination with the psi emitters".
    You'd excpect that DuGalle would listen Stukov, not only because he's his longtime friend and viceadmiral of the UED, but because his suggestion made much more sense that Duran's, a guy who met recently.
    Instead he listens to Duran, and orders the Psi Disrupter to be destroyed.
    • Later Kerrigan manages to destroy the Psi Disrupter.
      You'd expect the UED would build another one or even have another already built. The Terrans have siege tanks and science vessels and cloaking fields, so surely they have a computer capable of storing schematics, right?
      Instead they fight Kerrigan without it and their whole fleet gets wiped out.
  • In Okami, the priestess Rao has been talking about trying to find the "Fox Rods" since Ammy first met her. First she was saying she would use them to cure the curse on Sei-an City, then after Ammy fixed that, she changes her reason to "get rid of all the monsters." When she went into the Ghost Ship with Ammy and the Water Dragon showed up, Rao pretty much leaped all the way to the shore, leaving the person she was supposed to be helping to get eaten. Eventually, Ammy finds the Fox Rods; they were lodged in the Water Dragon's stomach, and when she first finds them, they turn into very evil little demonic foxes that try their hardest to kill her. Then we learn that they were what drove the Water Dragon insane in the first place by leaking dark magic everywhere. Immediately after this, Rao shows up in the Water Dragon's garden in the underwater Dragon Palace and asks for the Fox Rods.
    You'd Expect: They'd be a little suspicious of how much she wants these by this point Obviously Evil artifacts and hang on to them, especially if they remembered her display of superhuman abilities after they got off the Ghost Ship or thought to consider how the hell she got down to the Dragon Palace in the first place. Even if they trusted her completely, Issun voices worry that monsters will target whoever has the Fox Rods in order to get them, and who better to deal with roving monsters than God herself?
    Instead: Ammy hands over the Fox Rods so quickly that even Issun thinks she's getting ahead of herself. Turns out that the real Rao was killed a long time ago, and the one you've been dealing with the whole time was a shapeshifted Demon Lord Ninetails who needed the Rods to unleash his full power. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero.
  • In Homeworld: Cataclysm the heroes (a poorly armed mining company) stumble upon an alien escape pod apparently millions of years old. It gives away some strange biological readings. They report the finding to their superiors and request futher orders.
    You'd Expect: We-e-ell, frankly speaking you wouldn't sincerely expect some high-ranking military to order the heroes to immediately return to the homeplanet, so the pod could be properly studied in safe enviroment (by "safe" I mean "with capacity to incinerate it the moment some horrible, ship-consuming Virus breaks out of it") and the possible benefits could be shared with the whole planet, and not to tuck in some out-of-way corner of the galaxy and open the pod by themselves, wouldn you? It was still an exasperately dumb move.
    • The said pod was snatched by the heroes from under the very nose of a gang of space pirates. After some failed attempts to catch up with elusive heroes and reclaim their prize the pirates finally engage them. What they see is the lower section of the heroes' ship (where the pod apparently is) drifting separetely and covered with some icky ulcerous stains. Upon arrival the heroes immediately contact the pirates and beg them not to approach the pod.
      You'd Expect: Once again, you can't seriously expect the pirates to consider the plead or beware of the strange look of the section and at least send some minor ships to investigate. PROFIT beckons. Naturally they board the section with the whole fleet, get infected and destroy the last hope for the heroes to contain The Virus.
    • After The Virus spills on the larger part of the galaxy and gains self-consciosness, it offers a local run-down Empire a deal: they help it find and repair an ancient superpowered ship The Virus originated from and it gives them half the galaxy to reign over.
      You'd Expect: *sigh* Of course, you could hope that the imperials would somehow scrap enough common sence together and turn the deal away, but deep inside you'll know it's fool's hope. Naturally they accept, and the conflict escalates much further then before.
  • In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky you're sent to gather Perfect Apples, though you're ambushed by Team Skull who takes all the Perfect Apples.
    You'd expect Chatot to give you a chance to explain what happened.
    Instead Chatot gripes you out without giving you a chance to explain what happened and sends you to bed without eating, and later in the game, he complains that you wouldn't be able to do the job properly.
    • And in Heart Gold and Soul Silver, in the Team Rocket hideout in Mahogany Town, there's a scientist in the first floor (the one with the Persian statues) with three Magnemites. After you defeat him, you can talk to him. What does he say?
      You'd expect: That the scientist would just mention what Team Rocket has in store involving the Radio Tower. Or something involving their plan, anything except...
      Instead: He tells you that the computer on his desk can turn off the alarms set in the Persian statues, and for you to not push it. But, being the hero that you are, of course you're gonna do that...unless you prefer to pass the statues anyway to fight the Grunts for EXP.
  • Darius Mason is a dolt in Red Faction: Armageddon. What he does with Kara after their vehicle breaks down though truly takes the cake as the most infuriatingly stupid thing to ever happen in the Red Faction series.
    You'd expect: Their Spider Walker broke down right smack in the middle of bug territory. Thus, you would think the two would have fixed the problem as fast as they could so they could get on their way before company comes. (beat) You would, wouldn't you?
    Instead: While taking their time repairing the machine, the two decide to get Strangled by the Red String and make out in the middle of a Martian wasteland. Next thing you see, dozens of monsters come after them and just as the weakest alien in the game is about to kill Darius, Kara steps in and gets Impaled with Extreme Prejudice.
    Even Worse: All of the events in the game could've been avoided if Darius just fixed the terraformer with his nanoforge after Adam Hale blew it up. This makes the deaths of Kara, as well as countless of others, all frustratingly pointless, so he deserves the guilt that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Get a clue, Darius. GET A FUCKING CLUE.
  • In the Nightfall campaign of Guild Wars, players release Palawa Joko to help them combat the main bad guy in the game. In the past, this character attempted to conquer the area where Nightfall takes place with a strong army, and was tough to defeat. When he is released, he shows no remorse for this, and in the game starts to rebuild his army.
    You'd expect After defeating the main villain of the campaign, some of the player characters, heroes, and other members of the order of whispers would grab some worms (Which they have learned how to control during the game), travel to Palawa Joko while they are still on somewhat friendly terms, and capture him while his army is still weak, and the players have the capabilities needed. (This would all happen "offscreen", most likely.)
    Instead In Guild Wars 2, the backstory of the game has Palawa Joko rebuilding his army over time and taking over Elona, causing a lot of destruction and suffering. Perhaps this is simply for Rule of Fun, but it does seem odd that another villain wasn't created for that particular area.
  • In the Japan only Digimon game, D-1 Tamers, Millenniummon is back as Moon-Millenniumon, and the only person who can take him down again is Ryo Akiyama. This is a cause for alarm, naturally. The only person who doesn't have a clue is Ryo himself, and Ken.
    You'd expect The Chosen Children/Digidestined to give Ryo the run-down of the situation from the start so he can train to defeat Moon-Millenniumon. This guy has taken down Millenniummon before, and if he knew, he'd train even harder.
    Instead They set up a tournament and outright manipulate Ryo so he can become stronger, and prepared to take down Moon-Millenniumon. And they only tell him the truth at the last minute, before the final practice dungeon. Nevermind that Ryo had to sacrifice a Digimon earlier on in the Digimon Graveyard. Though Ryo did indeed defeat Moon-Millenniumon, and even though the Chosen Children did apologise for deceiving him, Ryo goes into a Heroic BSOD as a result that lasts straight into the next game, and it's probably the reason why he went to the Digimon Tamers universe instead of back to his home universe. What the hell, Digidestined?
  • Happens all the time in Dwarf Fortress.
    You'd Think: Dwarves would avoid things that are on fire.
    Instead: They see nothing wrong with picking up a still-burning sock and end up doing a spirited impression of a torch.
    You'd Think: That they'd avoid extremely flammable booze supplies while burning.
    Instead: BOOM!
  • From Dragon Age. Half the problems in Redcliffe can be attributed to Jowan. The other half to Isolde. First, it is discovered that her son, Connor, is a mage.
    You'd expect Isolde would inform the Circle so that they could take him to the Tower and educate him in the ways of magic.
    Instead Not wanting to be separated from her son, she keeps it a secret from everyone (including her own husband), hires a conviently available apostate mage to tutor him. Said mage happens to be Jowan, who has been hired by Loghain to poison Eamon.
    • So with that done, Jowan poisons Eamon and he falls ill. Redcliffe now falls into the hands of Isolde.
      You'd expect Isolde takes over ruling the arling to the best of her ability.
      Or At Least: Even if she has zero ability to run anything (which given the rest of her performance is an entirely believable theory), she just steps back and allows Arl Eamon's entirely competent and completely loyal younger brother, Bann Teagan, to run the damn place in Arl Eamon's absence... especially given that with both Arl Eamon and his son incapacitated, he's the legitimate heir!
      Instead She sends out all of Redcliffe's knights (all of them) to go find the legendary Urn of Sacred Ashes in the remote hope that it might cure him. This leaves the arling, and especially the castle and nearby village defenseless and at the mercy to whatever malevolent force just happens upon it...such as a demon that has possessed her magically-inept and naive mage son by taking advantage of his own desperate wish to save his father.
    • At the end of Anders' personal quest in Awakening, the Templar assigned to capture him (he is an Apostate, after all) confronts the party, and learns that Anders has officially become a Grey Warden, making him essentially untouchable by her.
      You'd expect the Templar to think rationally and decide capturing one Apostate isn't worth risking the ire of the Wardens or the King/Queen.
      Especially Given That:The law actually says that Grey Warden mages are legitimately outside templar authority, and that for that matter the Grey Wardens can legally recruit Circle mages, apostate mages, blood mages, or anything else they damn well feel like, and every other templar known has been tolerating this state of affairs, even if not wildly enthused about it, literally since the founding of the Chantry.
      Instead She completely snaps and tries to murder every non-Templar in the area, including the King/Queen of Ferelden. Naturally, this doesn't end well for her.
      Even Worse It is possible that the Warden Commander, who recruited Anders and is protecting him, is themselves the King/Queen of Ferelden, as well as the beloved hero who slew the archdemon and ended the Fifth Blight. Killing or injuring said hero in the process of apprehending Anders would likely bring loads of anger and hatred down on the Templar order in Fereldan from both the people and the nobility as well as the Grey Wardens. And if the warden is king or queen? Anora might be willing to look the other way, but could you imagine the shitstorm that would ensue if Alistair found out some dumbass Templars killed his dear wife?
      You'd also expect the ambush to take place in an empty warehouse with other templars and circle mages ready to bombard the party as soon as they stepped through the door.
      Instead she sets up what is probably the most poorly planned ambush in the history of RPG. The warehouse contains chests full of lyrium potions, superior mage robes for Anders, and other goodies useful for mages. She also waits patiently for the party to reach the phylactery room before delivering a Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner before feebly attacking the party with only two other templars.
    • In the Dwarf Commoner Origin of the game, the player's boss, the crime lord Behrat, has ordered the player character and their friend Leske to make certain the warrior Everd wins a tournament that all of the nobility, along with the Grey Warden commander Duncan, will be watching and attending. They find Everd completely drunk and in no way able to fight. With it being made clear Beraht will kill them if Everd loses and they decide the only way for this to work is to have the player character impersonate Everd.
      You'd expect Given that all of the important nobles and a Grey Warden are watching the tournament, Leske would stay with the real Everd to make sure he does not wake up and ruin the deception. Yes he is drunk, but he is still capable of moving independently, and any chance that they survive Beraht will be rendered null and void if the entire upper echelons of Dwarven society see them.
      Instead Leske leaves Everd just as he starts to regain consciousness.
      The result Everd comes into the arena right after the player character has won the tournament, getting them discovered and sentenced to death and the entire tournament is declared invalid.
    • After the player character and Leske are arrested for impersonating Everd, Beraht has lost a ton of money and is suspected of being involved. Both Leske and the player character are locked up for ridiculing the higher castes as well as impersonating Everd and stealing his armor, with the player character to be sentenceed to death, while suspicion has fallen on Beraht.
      You'd expect Beraht, as a member of the Merchant caste, meaning he has higher social standing than the player character and Leske's casteless, would let the sentence and let them be executed, and ride out the storm. He could easily make the argument he had no knowledge of it, and given he has allies with at least one noble family, he could state that the entire thing was the casteless's fault, since at the very least, the best they could prove is that he gave them the pass to get into the arena.
      Instead Beraht breaks the two out of the prison and brings them to his own dungeon so he can kill them, which not surprisingly causes even more heat since they are confirmed to have been broken out by someone.
      The Result The higher castes now know it was Beraht and they immediately start flooding the place looking for the fugitives and him.
    • The player character and Leske have broken out of Beraht's dungeon and have massacred the guards, and eventually encounter Beraht himself.
      You'd expect Beraht, having literally just broken the two most wanted people in the city, would immediately leave after talking with them before they broke out, since if the place is stormed, and he gets found and discovered with them in his custody, he would likely be dead.
      Instead Beraht stays and is killed by his two former thugs.
      The result When the player character and Leske are cornered immediately after exiting the building, Duncan will suggest that Beraht was responsible for Everd getting impersonated. Not a single dialogue choice the player can choose dispels this notion and will also confirm Beraht is dead at the player character's hands, meaning Duncan, who already saw the player successfully defeat several veterans at the arena, now has all the ability he needs to recruit the player character into the Grey Wardens, saving the player from execution and guaranteeing that the player character becomes famous.
  • In Fire Emblem 4, there's a loyal, honorable knight named Eltoshan who served under King Chagall. However, Chagall is a pathetic King, and somewhat a tyrant to the boot. He also treats Eltoshan lowly despite being his greatest asset in the army.
    You'd expect Knowing all his crimes and atrocity, Eltoshan denounces his knighthood and fight to serve the people, not the tyrannic king. Or join Sigurd.
    Instead He insists that his honor as a knight comes first and defends him like hell, the most he'd do is to try and persuade the thick-headed king. As a result, after getting too fed up, Chagall ordered his execution.
  • Early on in Fire Emblem 10: Radiant Dawn, one of the first main antagonists, a Begnion soldier Jarod, is desperately trying to shut down the Dawn Brigade, as they are what could potentially lead Daein into overthrowing Begnion. After the first chapter introducing the Dawn Brigade, his soliders chase them through the streets and Micaiah showcases her healing powers to save a dying boy, which require her to sacrifice her own health.
    You'd expect: Micaiah expends her life energy here, or gets captured by the soldiers.
    Instead: They escape unharmed, and the soldiers stand around and do nothing about it, despite a moment ago they were willing to kill an innocent child just to get at her.
    • Also, early on in the story, Micaiah, the one Jarod is after, abandons her team to buy time for them, running into Jarod.
      You'd expect: Jarod to cut her down where she stands, as he'd been planning to do the entire time.
      Instead: He sends her to jail, where she meets up with the traders for the previous game, and Kurth. Nice Job Fixing It Villian.
  • Kingdom Hearts
    • Sora(along with Donald and Goofy) meets Riku(Sora's best friend and another survivor of The Heartless invasion that destroyed the boys' island home) in Traverse Town, after spending the first fifth of the game searching for him and Kairi across different Disney-themed planets. Sora asks Riku if he wants to join them and search for Kairi along with them.
      You'd Expect Riku, even though he is Badass Normal enough to be able to fight off The Heartless, to join his best friend and recognize both that Sora has everyone's best interests at heart, and that going it alone is dangerous and stupid.
      Instead He gets pissy, thinking that Sora ditched him for Donald and Goofy and to show off his Keyblade, and starts his eventual Face Heel Turn.
      Even Worse Staying with the good guys probably would have resulted in Riku getting his own Keyblade a lot sooner than he did.
      • Or, in an Alternate Interpretation of that same scene:
        You'd Expect Donald and Goofy to welcome him, since he has proven his skill and strength.
        Instead Donald blows Riku off without any explanation at all, providing fertilizer for the seeds of darkness in Riku's heart. And Sora doesn't call Donald out at all or ask why not.
      • Yes, Sora does ask why Riku can't come. Donald states that he doesn't care that Riku is Sora's friend. Sora looks up, Riku is gone.
    • In the sequel, Pete is not the sharpest among the villains, but in one chapter, it seems he gets the better of Sora, going way back in time to the earliest of Disney's cartoons ("Steamboat Willie", in fact) intent on stealing the Cornerstone of Light, before it was the cornerstone of Disney Castle, in an attempt to Make Wrong What Once Went Right. With a head start on Sora, he manages to grab it, actually belts his past-self and steals the steamboat, and for a minute, it seems all is lost.
      You'd expect Pete would just step on it and make a clean getaway. With no boat of his own to follow, Sora would be able to do nothing, and Malificent's victory would be assured..
      Instead Being a thick-headed and overconfident fool, Pete paddles the boat slowly in order to mock and goad Sora, and as if that wasn't enough, starts throwing junk at him, letting Sora smack it back at him until he spins out of control, letting Sora board the boat and reclaim the Cornerstone. Even his past self can't help but laugh at him.
  • Red Dead Redemption: Agent Ross has manipulated John Marston into killing all of his former gang. Ross wants the glory for this, so he plans to kill Marston to take all the credit.
    You'd Expect: Ross would just shoot Marston in the back right at the site of the battle with Dutch's gang, or order the Army to kill him right then and there, allowing him to blame the death on Dutch.
    Instead: He lets Marston go and re-unite with his family for several days before invading his ranch with a company of trained soldiers. Marston, with the advantage of fighting on his own turf and resting up, kills dozens of them. Marston then dies right before his son's eyes. The same son then returns to get his vengeance on Ross (and Ross' family, if the player feels particularly vindictive)]]
    Being Fair: Ross is intimately aware of what's happened to the last fifteen dozen guys who tried to kill Marston "right then and there", and it's completely in-character for him to sacrifice several dozen Mooks in cold blood rather than personally risk his own life.
    • In the beginning of the game, John Marston is in front of Fort Mercer. Above him is his target, Bill Williamson and at least two other men. All have guns trained on him. During the conversation, it's becoming clear that Bill won't listen to him.
    • You'd Expect: John Marston accepts Bill's offer to leave while he still had the chance.
    • Instead: He pulls out his cattleman revolver, but in a split-second, one of the bandits shoot him in the ribs, causing him to nearly bleed to death. He's lucky he was saved soon afterward and that the bandit in question didn't instead shoot him in the head.
    • John Marston knows people who are willing to help him in his quest.
    • You'd Expect: He'd be civil with them, even though they appear to be wasting his time.
    • Instead: He threatens to blow their brains out every chance he gets.
  • In Phantasmagoria, a young couple moves into a house that was once owned by an evil sorceror. Your charecter Adrienne then opens the house's Sealed Evil in a Can, thus making a demon posses her husband. During the game's course she picks up a magic spell that can easily defeat the demon.
    You'd Expect: Adrienne would use the spell right away to kill the demon, liberate her husband, and thus resulting in a Happy Ending.
    Instead: She kills her husband first, thus liberating the demon from his body. The demon which can fly, turn into mist and, due to being about a hundred times stronger than her husband, peel her face off by jamming its thumbs in her eye sockets and giving a little tug. THEN she destroyed the demon, waiting until the last possible instant to do so. So ends the game as she leaves her now wrecked house, and with no husband. Nice job killing him hero.
  • At one point in Luminous Arc, the player party has just subdued an opponent. They all know she has one of the Plot Coupons they're grappling for in her body, she's killed dozens of innocent civilians, and nobody has any reason to believe she's not completely synthetic.
    You'd Expect: Someone to rip the stone out of her chest. At least one party member is impulsive or pragmatic enough to do it without calling a team meeting. Either way, a serious threat is out of the game and the party is up one MacGuffin.
    Instead: They leave her to recover and fight again another day. Repeatedly.
  • Rainbow Six: Vegas: Gabriel Nowak is the new guy, who somehow makes it onto the world's foremost Commando team. During his first mission, he ignores orders, gets a hostage negotiator killed, and acts petty about it when called out.
    You'd Expect: That such a loose cannon and ineffective operator would be booted from the team immediately.
    Instead: He's still a part of your squad and still disobeys orders five years later. This allows him to use Rainbow's contacts and weaponry in setting up his massive scheme which it takes you two games to undo.
  • Mass Effect 2 provides several examples:
    • Warden Kuril, the head honcho of the Purgatory prison ship, welcomes Shepard and two other armed companions ([2]) on board with aims to kidnap them and sell them off to slavers.
      You'd Expect: that Kuril would require Shepard and his/her companions to disarm, in accordance with standard security procedures for guests aboard prison ships, and to refuse them entry if they do not comply. Or, failing that, that Kuril would scrap the whole "kidnap and sell" plan if unable to force Shepard and company to disarm.
      Instead: Although Kuril does make an attempt at requiring the party to disarm, when Shepard refuses to do so, he lets them proceed fully armed (including, possibly, with TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS) and then attempts to capture them near a security checkpoint. This works about as well as you'd expect.
      Also: He tells Shep and the party what he's up to seconds before they step into a room that would incapacitate all of them. If he had waited another 30 seconds, he would've had all of them safely captured.
    • Another example, this one on part of the player. Late in the game, and assuming he/she took the necessary steps to recruit Morinth, she will invite Shepard over to meld with each other. Morinth is a sociopathic Ardat-Yakshi and Serial Killer with the ability to control people's minds, an ability Shepard resisted in the past to betray Samara, Morinth's mother. Morinth claims that Shepard's Heroic Willpower will enable him/her to survive the process, despite the fact nobody in recorded history has ever survived an Ardat-Yakshi's melding.
      You'd Expect: Shepard to decline the offer, what with the imminent war against the Reapers putting enough of a threat to his/her health.
      Instead: Shepard can choose to meld with Morinth, resulting in a Nonstandard Game Over.
    • In the backstory to the Arrival DLC, Dr. Amanda Kenson, an Alliance agent, discovered Object Rho, a Reaper artifact that gives her a vision of the Alpha Relay. The Alpha Relay is a mass relay located on the edge of the galaxy that, when activated by the Reapers, will allow them to travel to any relay in the galaxy, destroying any hope of organized resistance. She realizes she has to destroy the Alpha Relay before the Reapers arrive. They stick engines on a massive asteroid and prepare to smash it into the relay.
      You'd Expect: She'd get Object Rho as far away from the Project as possible. The thing is a Reaper beacon; nothing good can possibly come from keeping it around. Space it, lock it away, blow it up, anything. Get it away, fire the engines, and get off this rock.
      Instead: They keep it lying in the open, and quickly succumb to indoctrination.
  • Mass Effect 3 gets a bunch of them. They are arguably much worse than anything in the first two games.
    • Kai Leng's special ability seems to be channeling Idiot Balls, since everyone who goes near him starts acting stupid
      Overview: Kai Leng is in a tussle with Thane, who's trying to stop him from killing the Salarian Councilor and is armed with a pistol and his biotics, near the end of the fight, Thane knocks Kai Leng flat on his ass.
      You'd Expect: Thane, or in failing that, Shepard and crew who have been standing there watching, to take this chance to put a bullet in Kai Leng's face.
      Instead: Thane and gang let him get back up. Thane ends up getting stabbed and dying in a hospital.
      • Later, when Shepard and his squad are en route via aircar to intercept Ceberus as they move towards the Council members, when Kai Leng suddenly jumps on the roof of their car.
        You'd Expect: Shepard to step hard on the brakes, or the accelerator, or simply turn the car rapidly to one side, and thus send Kai Leng off on a 1000-foot skydive without a parachute.
        Instead: Shepard tries to shoot Kai Leng through the windshield of her own car. (For bonus idiot points, that is likely a bulletproof windshield.) Shepard, the Alliance's greatest soldier, then repeatedly misses Kai Leng at a distance of less than three feet. Kai Leng then stabs their car with a katana and causes it to crash, allowing Cerberus to get a head start on the race to the Council.
    • By far one of the most egregious examples of Genre Blindness is the Reaper's actions regarding the Mass Relays and the Citadel.
      Overview: The Reapers designed the Citadel as not only a Mass Relay by itself, but also as a control hub for ALL the other Mass Relays. Needless to say, the Citadel is quite important in this regard.
      You'd Expect: The Reapers would at least make the Citadel one of their earliest targets. If they can't invade in full force, they could at least send a few of themselves or try to get sleeper agents onto the Citadel. They should surely recognize the threats Shepard and the unity of the galactic races pose to their plans. After taking control of the Citadel, they seal it from the outside (thus making it impenetrable), and start cutting off star systems from one another to at least begin to weaken the resistance. They might also move it to a secure area, making it pretty much impossible for the resistance to travel effectively.
      Instead: The Reapers may or may not play a role in Cerberus's invasion of the Citadel, which fails pretty badly. Regardless, the Reapers wait for THE ILLUSIVE MAN to tell them that the Citadel is the Catalyst needed to activate the Crucible before actually moving to take it over and succeeding. Once captured, do they move it to throughly conquered territory like, say, Thessia (which is quite close to the Citadel's original location)? No, they move it to EARTH, knowing that is where the resistance is going and therefore bringing the Crucible along.
  • In the ancient ZX Spectrum game Feud, Learic curses you with an aging spell before the start of the game that will kill you after one day. The only way to reverse the curse is to kill him.
    You'd Expect: Learic to actively avoid you. The sensible course of action would be to evade you for the day and win by default.
    Instead: He comes after you trying to kill you, giving you a chance to fight back and kill him, saving yourself.
  • In Valkyria Chronicles 2, Squad G is in the middle of liberating Cosette's hometown from rebels. Once the fighting dies down, the squad begins to work on getting medical treatment to the civilians wounded in the rebel's attempted ethnic cleansing. However, seeing her hometown in ruins coupled with people dying brings up some bad memories for Cosette, causing her to freeze up.
    You'd Expect: Avan would get her to a safe place where they can get her to calm down, and have another medic tend to the wounded.
    Instead: Avan decides to snap Cosette out of it by shooting himself, reasoning that it will motivate her to get past the trauma and save his life. This not only runs the risk of making Cosette's breakdown worse and killing Avan, but cuts off Squad G's chain of command and forces Cosette to spend time on a person who would have been perfectly fine if he had behaved logically. Granted, Avan is an idiot, but there's only so much we can excuse that.
  • BlazBlue Continuum Shift: Litchi Faye-Ling, who was being corrupted by the Boundary, is approached by Hazama who wants her to join NOL. The reward is her long-sought cure for Arakune (and herself), but Hazama has shown himself to be very shady that he could get information of her unpublished work. In the meantime, the only one she sought for help about this, Kokonoe, has refused her for the umpteenth time, and Arakune has gone his way to be sane and tell her to stop her pursuit.
    You'd think: She realizes that Hazama means trouble, accepting his deal means Deal with the Devil. Litchi would wise up and refuse the offer, and either try harder herself or live the rest of her short life with the other friends she had in Orient Town, which can still make her happy and fulfilled in another way.
    Instead: She disregards all that, only think of what SHE thinks of Arakune, accepts the offer, joins NOL and becomes an antagonist of the series.
    Bonus idiocy: Shortly after joining, she fought Carl Clover, showered him with care over his peril and she manages to win his genuine trust. Then suddenly, Relius Clover busted in, attacked Carl and attempted to kill her too, only for her and Carl to escape thanks to Nirvana's teleportation. Also, Relius Clover is a high-ranking colonel of NOL and continued working there means she'll work with such evil men.
    You'd think: She's had enough, and knew such evil men would wreck her deal in terms of saving Arakune, and then quits NOL.
    Instead: She stuck with them, ignoring that Carl hates his father and her hanging out with Relius would destroy the trust on her that grew within Carl for a short time.
  • In Tol Barad Peninsula of World of Warcraft, one daily quest involves escorting a prisoner out of Farson Hold.
    You'd Expect: The prisoner to follow you like many Escort Mission NPCs, since you found your way into the place. It's not hard to find your way out, since the dungeon is straight across the courtyard from the gate.
    Instead: The prisoner takes a few wrong turns, once even going up the stairs in one of the hold's towers, on the way out, while ignoring the door out that is within sight. To be fair, though, the guards generally don't start attacking until you're outside, so this stupidity won't jeopardize your chances of success, although it's more unnecessary walking to repeat if the prisoner dies or the quest glitches.
  • In Fallout: New Vegas, NCR President Aaron Kimball decides to make a visit to Hoover Dam to deliver a speech, despite the fact the Caesar's Legion is literally next door and will be looking to take him out.
    You'd Expect: Him to do the speech by radio from a secure location inside the dam, make damn sure there was no way anyone could get in with a gun, much less a bomb, or not hold the speech on the front lines. In failing that, he could at least not announce it ahead of time so that the Legion won't have time to plan the assassination.
    Instead: He announces it ahead of time, giving the Legion time to plan, doesn't even bother to hide his entry, coming in via Vertibird, and if you aren't there to protect him, he predictably dies.
  • In the Nancy Drew game Warnings at Waverly Academy, one of the suspects has her term paper erased by the Black Cat. You are given the option of asking the suspect if she kept a hard copy. If you do, the suspect replies:
    You'd Expect: "Of course I did! Do you think I want four weeks of research to go down the drain? Good thing the Black Cat didn't count on that!"
    Instead: "No! It would be like printing out a book!"
    • Sadly, Nancy Drew herself is capable of this without the player having to invoke it (the moments where it can be invoked are the ones resulting in a Game Over). For example, at the end of Legend of the Crystal Skull, Nancy has found the eponymous skull in a crypt. Just as she does, the culprit comes along, sees her down in the crypt with the skull, and in an Aladdin-esque moment, asks for Nancy to hand over the skull.
      You'd Expect: That Nancy, being the highly-experienced detective she is even by game standards (this is game seventeen), would see through this ruse and proclaim "A-ha! So you're the culprit!" and refuse to give up the skull even if it meant having to escape another trap.
      Instead: Nancy actually hands over the skull, then acts surprised when the culprit traps her in the crypt and takes off with the skull.
    • And then at the end of Ransom of the Seven Ships, the bum whom Nancy has been helping turns out to be a former culprit out for two things: the treasure, and revenge. And did we mention this is one of the most genuinely insane culprits in the entire series?
      You'd Expect: Nancy would do something or come up with a plan, like going through her inventory and using something on the culprit, or, even better, using her walkie-talkie to alert George.
      Instead: Nancy just...kind of stands there while the culprit rants and raves. She realizes she might be a in a trap and only whimpers "Oh no" when she still has seconds to take action. And this is a trap she has been aware of since she first came to this particular beach.
  • According to the Game Over Cutscene in Banjo-Kazooie, Gruntilda could just tell her lackey to turn up the power and complete the transformation from Hag into Hot anytime she wanted.
    You'd Expect: She tell her lackey to turn up the power immediately, or anytime during the several hours she taunts the heroes while they collect the collectibles of the game.
    Instead: She does the aforementioned latter, either doing nothing but taunting the heroes as they get closer and closer to her, or work on her Pop Quiz Lethal Lava Land.
    In Addition: After heroes beat her in (again) aforementioned Pop Quiz Lethal Lava Land she willingly gives up her hostage and runs away, even though she was under no real obligation to do so.
    But Then: Despite Gruntilda uncharacteristically abandoning her plot and fleeing, Tootie insists that you have to properly defeat her before you can celebrate your victory. It can't be said with certainty that she would have been any nicer if they'd left her alone, but the outcome of this battle leaves her severely injured and vowing revenge, which leads to all of her villainous plots during the next three games.
    And To Top It All Off: The victim of the first game's plot and catalyst for the rest of the franchise's problems vanishes from the series entirely afterward. So what have our heroes gained?
  • Return to Krondor manages to avert this trope for the most part. However, there is one glaring instance of this trope popping up at the end of the game. William is magically carried to Widow's Point by Sidi, gets to fight Bear and finally kill him. William reunites with the other four player characters and take the Tear of the Gods back to Krondor. Sidi is the guy Bear worked for and Sidi is responsible for all sorts of trouble the protagonists went through.
    You'd Expect: William bring up Sidi's name, which will cause a reaction to the other four and confront Sidi.
    Instead: The five characters go back to Krondor, seem to forget all about Sidi, and William never brings up the fact that Sidi helped him bring down Bear.
  • In Crysis 2, New York has been overrun by the alien Ceph. Military command has already, by this point, hired and discarded mercenary company CELL to try and contain not only the alien invasion but the plague they're spreading at the same time. When this fails (spectacularly), military command sends in Marine companies to A) contain the invasion and B) arrest the CELL operatives who have not just failed in their duty, but are completely fucking insane.
    You'd Expect: the higher-ups to let the Marines go about doing their jobs. Perhaps even send in regular soldiers to handle rounding up CELL and let Marines get on with dealing with the Ceph. The times you see the Marines in action, they seem to hold their own fairly well, if with heavy casualties. Reinforce them and let things continue that way, or, hell, investigate these reports of a man in super-armor kicking alien ass five ways till Sunday.
    Instead: They decide that extra measures are needed. Well, can't blame them for that. But they decide to strike against the Ceph by bombing out the upriver dam and flooding the city. Now, these aliens have been nicknamed the Ceph. As in, cephalopods. As in, creatures that live in water. Nearly every scientist talked to in the game notes how it's obvious that they are, at least, amphibious in origin, and that they seem to be at home in the water. So, not only are the higher-ups endangering the forces already in the city, they are potentially providing the aliens with an environment in which they will have an easy upper hand.
    In Addition: The disease is still rampant, so flooding the city will only serve to spread the virus into the water supply.
    • Later, Ceph lithoship rises out of Central Park and prepares to spread the virus over the entire city, potentially much, much farther. Now, the last time a lithoship reared its head, military command launched a nuke at it. The lithoship then proceeded to not only be completely unharmed, but actually absorbed the power from the blast to boost its processes.
      You'd Expect: The higher-ups will have learned from their past mistakes and look for alternatives, seeing as the last time they nuked one of these things it went south rather spectacularly.
      Instead: They decide to throw a nuke at the damn thing anyways. Fortunately, Alcatraz sabotages it before they can get the launch in the air.
  • In one of the street cases of L.A. Noire, Cole Phelps and Roy Earle, two cops stumbled into a fight between Dudley Lynch and a black man on the roof of a house over a girl, Shannon Perry, where the black man was thrown down to his death. After the fight, Dudley assured the girl that he did it all for her and they seem to have a romantic moment before Cole Phelps came up the roof to talk to Dudley about the incident.
    You'd Expect: That Dudley would explain that the incident was a case of self-defense and that Shannon would testify for him. Thus allowing him to get out of the situation Scot-free.
    Instead: He ran away, while throwing Shannon hard to the floor, then we have a chase scene where the cops managed to capture him. Then Dudley tried to tell the cops that the whole thing was a case of self-defense but Cole calmly told him that the whole thing is out of his hands and said that if so, Shannon would testify so for him. But given the way he treated her when he was about to make a run for it, it seems unlikely.
    In Addition: Running away from the police tend to be a charge in and of itself.
    • Another moment would be when Cole has planned to investigate Elysian Fields. He is warned by the likes of Arson captain, McKelty, not to do that.
      You'd Expect: He will follow his orders and act like it never happened.
      Instead: He does it anyway. Luckily, his partner Herschel, who previously objects to that, accepts of getting his career ruined by investigating that company.
      In Addition: By making a move like that, Roy Earle, who is working with the head of that company, and McKelty marked them off from investigating further.
  • In The World Ends With You, Neku meets a Reaper who offers him a chance to do one mission to get out of the Game immediately.
    You'd Expect: That being the misanthrope he is, Neku would have at least enough skepticism of a sinister person he knows nothing about to ask what the task is before agreeing to it.
    Instead: His reaction is best paraphrased as "Sure, sign me up!" He's instructed to "erase" his partner, and is only stopped from doing so when someone turns up to explain that the Reaper has no authority to do what he thought she was offering and that he would have got out of the Game by being erased himself. Later we learn that the characters are dead and that the prize of the Game is an opportunity to return to life, so getting out of it isn't even desirable.
    • Eri, Shiki's best friend, noticed that she couldn't come up with a design.
      You'd Expect: She'll find her help.
      Instead: She just said, "You're not meant to be a designer", resulting in Shiki's death after that.
    • An alternate interpretation of the situation.
      You'd Expect: Shiki will just have to accept of what Eri said.
      Instead: She just goes sad over it, thinking she said that because of not having her talent.
  • In Devil May Cry, at the start, Trish breaks into Dante's joint, beats the crap out of him, impales him with a sword, electrocutes him with lightning then chucks a 200+kg motorbike at him to crush him.
    You'd Expect: After what she did to him, and noticing that the lightning came out of her bare-hands, therefore proving she's not a normal human, you'd expect Dante to instantly recognize Trish as a villain and kill her immediately.
    Instead: Dante is gullible to believe Trish's tall tales and lets her lead him to the evil island where his enemy awaits, and are all eager to kick his ass.
    In Addition: She also does this again late in the game when she plays damsel-in-distress to lure Dante into a boss-fight, then attacks him in the process, although it's Nightmare doing most of the attacking.
    In Another Addition: Trish also says, "You should know better than to trust a stranger!"
    • Trish is revealed to be working for Mundus and is ordered to attack Dante after Vergil failed.
      You'd Expect: Knowing Dante would be so mad at her when he found out immediately, she refuses to do what Mundus said.
      Instead: She does it anyway. This made Dante so upset greatly that he doesn't want to see her face again. Way to go, Trish.
    • Dante has rescued Trish. This is because she looks like his mother.
      You'd Expect: He'll immediately forgive her for betraying him over to Mundus.
      Instead: He shouts out at her for her betrayal and leaves her behind. Of course, having failed Mundus, Trish gets captured by him.
  • In Twisted Metal (2012), Dollface is one of three main characters who successfully win the competition. Dollface (Krista Sparks, a model who had a doll mask spiritually locked on her face by a backroom doctor) has spent the entire competition fighting to get her prize: remove the mask once and for all.
    You'd Expect: She'd wish for the mask to be removed.
    Instead: Krista has second thoughts, and realizes that she would always look beautiful if she kept the mask on. She asks Calypso to put her on "the biggest runway in the world" - he drops her on the tarmac at an airport, where Krista realizes a plane is landing behind her. Instead of running off to the side of the runway, she starts running in the opposite direction as the plane, breaks her heel, then lays down monologuing on the runway (with a good ten- to twenty-second buffer between the time she falls and when the plane lands) instead of rolling out of the way. She ends up dying just like the other two competitors.
  • In Star Ocean: The Last Hope, the party lands on an Another Dimension version of 1957 Earth and gets their ship and a party member captured by the local Men in Black. After infiltrating their secret underground base and fighting their way through bizarre alien experiments, the party comes across the base's Mad Scientist commander who tells our protagonists they're honestly really just trying to solve the world energy crisis and would you please give us your ship's power source so we can stop pollution, be friends with aliens instead of experimenting on them and save the future.
    You'd expect: The party brainiacs if not the captain himself to realize that the ship's power source could destroy the entire planet if improperly used and categorically refuse to give it to some ethically challenged people they met 5 minutes ago, no matter how much they wanted to help "save the future."
    Instead: They give up their Green Rock, then obliviously walk into an obvious jail cell. From there they have front-row seats to watch the crazy woman install it into her makeshift reactor which immediately starts an irreversible overload. Cue escape from exploding planet.
  • In Rosenkreuzstilette, Tia has defeated Iris in the final battle. Iris ponders why she'd lose to a single mage fighting by herself, and Tia reminds her that she wasn't actually fighting by herself; everyone was cheering her on. It's because Iris couldn't believe in others nor love her fellow man that she lost. Tia then tells Iris to give up.
    You'd expect: Iris would agree to surrender and then stop her evil deeds and change her ways.
    Instead: She, as the Magnificent Bastard she is for knowing where Tia has positioned herself, laughs and mocks Tia for having let her guard down, and invokes the power of her tiara, activating the self-destruct mechanism of her palace in an attempt to crush Tia with it, and escapes in her capsule. Unknown to her, however, Tia and Lilli are saved by Talos, and they happily reunite with their friends and colleagues from RKS.
  • Fahrenheit has Lucas attempting to save Tiffany from the Oracle. She warns him that it's a trap.
    You'd Expect: He acknowledges this and has no choice but to let her die by the Oracle's hands.
    Instead: He rescues her anyway. This gives the Oracle the chance to kill both of them.
  • Heavy Rain would have these moments.
    • When Ethan came to the warehouse by himself and save Shaun, Blake has surrounded him with lots of policemen.
      You'd Expect: He acknowledges that he is with his son and realizing he is not the Origami Killer.
      Instead: He doesn't and opens fire on him in front of his son. The bright side to this is that he loses his job.
    • "Uploaded": Blake is told by Captain Perry now that Jayden is dead, he can do whatever he wants with his ARI glasses. While working, he is tempted to try it.
      You'd Expect: He decided to throw it away since that he feels suspicious of it.
      Instead: He puts it on and enjoys it briefly before a vision of Jayden appears, hinting that he'll suffer the effects of the ARI next.
    • In ending "A Mother's Revenge", Scott confronts Lauren in the middle of a street where she tells him now that she knows he's the Origami Killer.
      You'd Expect: He'll either convince her to keep this secret or kill her to keep this a secret.
      Instead: He doesn't say anything about what she said and gives her the chance to kill him, avenging her son.
    • Norman pushes and punches Blake when he is beating the crap out of Ethan. This results Blake to pull out his gun at him. If you save Ethan when he's not in the floor, he'll be there to see it.
      You'd Expect: Norman tells him that he's not supposed to bring a gun while in interrogation otherwise Ethan might get it which he'll do by grabbing his right hand.
      Instead: a) He tells Blake that he's out of his mind and shooting him will make him lose his job and b) Ethan doesn't do anything to save him.
    • There's also when he attempts to tell Captain Perry about it.
      You'd Expect: The captain will go to the interrogation and show Blake who's boss.
      Instead: He just tells Norman to put a sock on it, proving he's also incompetent.
  • Baten Kaitos Origins: Gibari and King Ladekahn have headed to Nashira to watch the skyfarers bring in today's catch. When they reach Nashira, however, they're shocked to find that Alfardian soldiers have captured the village and imprisoned the inhabitants. Ladekahn demands to know what is going on, and is laughed at by the soldiers.
    You'd Expect: He'd say something along the lines of 'I'm King Ladekahn, dumbass. What the hell are you doing on my island?'
    Instead: He throws a fit and orders them to leave Diadem immediately, prompting the soldiers to lock him and Gibari up.
    • Ladekahn also has a moment in Eternal Wings. After Alfard (again) lays siege to Diadem on flimsy claims, he's told that the Alfardian emissaries would like to make a ceasefire.
      You'd Expect: He'd realize that Alfard probably doesn't have Diadem's best interests in mind.
      Instead: He meets the Alfardians on the bridge to his castle, alone, and gets shot by Ayme. The only thing that keeps Ayme from finishing him off is Lyude's Heel Face Turn.
  • In Famous has Zeke getting a hold of the Ray Sphere, a device that gave Cole his powers.
    You'd Expect: He'll just give it to him to save the day from Alden.
    Instead: He attempts to use it to gain powers of his own even if it costs the lives of people. Luckily, it didn't work, so Kessler asks him to join him. What did Zeke do? He does.
  • Dead Rising: After being defeated by Frank, Isabela is told to bring Carlito in for interrogation.
    You'd Expect: He'll follow her request knowing that he has full trust in her.
    Instead: He shot her in anger for such a request, explaining of when Frank meets her again, she has a shoulder wound. This gets Isabela to work with the good guys. Way to go, Carlito.
  • The video game version of The Darkness has Jackie having taken control of the titular entity by absorbing it through his own spirit. He is warned that for every kill, the Darkness will take control of him.
    You'd Expect: He decided not to kill anymore.
    Instead: He continues to kill until he gets his Uncle Paulie. Upon killing him, guess what happens.
  • Soul Calibur V: After Pryhha defends him from Nightmare, Patroklos sees her in the state where she is destined to become the new host of Soul Edge.
    You'd Expect: He has to find help for her.
    Instead: He just turned Soul Calibur on her, resulting in their fight in episode 16.
  • In the original Diablo, the Lone Wanderer, upon defeating the title Lord of Terror, sees him revert back to a regular man with a weird-looking stone in his head, a stone that is quite obviously a soulstone of sorts for the thing he's just taken out.
    You'd Expect: The Lone Wanderer would put two and two together and destroy the stone so Diablo cannot rise in this world again.
    Instead: The Lone Wanderer decides to jam the damned thing into his own head in an attempt to contain Diablo's evil within his own body. This leads to him being taken over by Diablo by the time the second game rolls around, and things just get worse from there.
  • In the tutorial mission of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, your CIA hit squad has arrived at an airfield in Turkey to assassinate Arash Kadivar, an Iranian terrorist leader. After you finally run him to ground and are about to execute him, he brags that he is working in conjunction with the infamous 'Perseus', who in-setting is basically the Soviet equivalent of the Red Skull and who has been among the very highest-value of High Value Targets ever since World War II until he was believed killed over a decade ago during the Vietnam War. Furthermore, Arash brags that Perseus is not only still in play but that his latest plan will "make the West burn", and it is already on-record that Perseus has made at least one prior attempt to hijack and use rogue nuclear weapons.
    You'd Expect: Adler, your squad leader, the man who led the original Perseus kill team and someone whose character is presented as a ruthless calculating mastermind, to immediately alter the mission spec from 'kill' to 'capture' so that Arash can be interrogated at length about exactly where and when he's recently seen Perseus and exactly where and what the lunatic is going to try and nuke this time.
    Instead: Adler plugs Arash in the forehead literally mid-sentence, apparently not showing the slightest amount of interest in what he was saying.
    And Worse Yet: Adler, literally in the same breath as capping Arash Kadivar, then segues straight into a dramatic statement of 'If Perseus is still in play, we need to find out how and why! Sweep the airfield for survivors!' As if there hadn't been the highest-ranking survivor right in front of you the whole time, until Adler had just killed him.
    The Remainder of the Game: Will be spent trying to get information about Perseus out of far more doubtful people, by far more elaborate means, with far lower odds of expected success, when literally the entire plot of the game could have been rendered utterly pointless if Adler had simply not killed their prime witness for no reason. Because as later flashbacks reveal, Arash already had all the information they needed.
  • Saints Row 2:
    • Jessica decides the next step in the Brotherhood's feud with the Third Street Saints is to have Carlos murdered.
      You'd Expect: She has it done quietly and then gets the Hell out of town ASAP. The Boss is a casual multiple murderer even on the best of days and she really doesn't need them taking it personally.
      Instead: She makes taunting phone calls while having the victim dragged behind a vehicle, leaving him so badly mangled that he is beyond help and the Boss can only Mercy Kill him, thus ensuring the Boss will be very motivated about payback. Then not only does she not leave, she doesn't even bother going to ground. The Boss proceeds to catch her on a routine bank run and subject her to one of the series's most brutal deaths.
    • Shogo Akuji and his gang gatecrash the funeral for a close Saints associate who his underling murdered. Johnny Gat gives him a chance to walk away today and come back another time.
      You'd Expect: He would take it, if not out of knowing how poorly fights between his gang and the Saints go for his side or Due to the Dead, then at least out of caution at such an Out-of-Character Moment from a normally-eager Blood Knight like Gat.
      Instead: He presses the attack, his men get slaughtered, and his pathetic attempt at flight ends in a seriously nasty Karmic Death.
  • Yakuza:
    • Almost Once an Episode, Kiryu or another playable character will leave a defeated enemy lying on the ground but not dead or even unconscious to go talk to someone.
      You'd Expect: They would thoroughly frisk the defeated enemy for weapons and confiscate any that are lying around. As experienced criminals, they should know that they're dealing with spiteful scumbags who will do anything to ruin the lives of their enemies.
      Instead: They don't bother doing so. The enemy manages to recover, get his or her hands on a weapon, and fatally wound someone before finally getting put down or at least knocked out properly.
      Even Worse: The fact that this happens across multiple games shows that Kiryu and co. are incapable of learning, despite the fact that even one friend lost to this idiocy should have been one too many.
  • In Batman: Arkham Asylum, the Joker gives Poison Ivy a generous supply of Titan, (an unstable steroidal compound that can turn humans into hulking, super strong brutes, and it seems, can make plants even stronger). Ivy proceeds to use this unholy combination to create a gigantic Man-Eating Plant, and use it in her attempt to pummel Batman into paste.
    You'd Expect: This monstrosity is literally stronger than steel, and there is not one weapon in Batman's armory that can so much as scratch it. Theoretically, as it is an extension of Poison Ivy's mostly-human body, she is the one weak spot, but she has thought ahead and placed herself in a pod in the creature's head. So long as she keeps the pod closed she is untouchable, which would mean it's curtains for The Dark Knight.
    Instead: Being the insane Card-Carrying Villain she is, Ivy cannot resist opening the pod a few times to taunt Batman with an Evil Laugh or threat, and that is the one time she is vulnerable. Plus no matter how many times Batman knocks her upside the head with a batarang, she does not learn, making the same mistake again and again, and is eventually brought down.
  • Army Dillo from Donkey Kong 64. This titanic boss is a giant armadillo, able to withdraw his head into his steel shell, attacking the protagonist with fireballs from two cannons on his side or roll over him like an oversized steamroller. This fight is, in effect, a battle between a gorilla and a tank, and in most such situations, a tank has the clear advantage.
    You'd Expect: Army Dillo would simply keep himself inside that shell, as any attempt by Donkey Kong to make an offensive move - even with the exploding barrels that continually respawn in the arena - would be a futile one.
    Instead: Army Dillo notices Donkey Kong's futile attempts, and much like the example with Poison Ivy above, can't resist stopping from time to time to laugh at his foe's expense, poking his head out and giggling like a maniac. This of course gives Donkey Kong an opportunity to throw one of those barrels at him, and after three times, Army Dillo is history.
    To Make Things Worse: Actually, no, he is not history, because you have to fight him again later in the game. And while you have to hit him four times instead of three this time, he makes the exact same mistake he did before!
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  1. ↑ Dr. Bian from the first game, whose Face Heel Turn was made for similar reasons, concedes this when the heroes beat him.
  2. ↑ a high ranking operative for one of the most powerful terrorist organizations in the galaxy; a seasoned lieutenant to same; a mercenary renowned for his ruthlessness and extremely high salary; a former C-Sec Officer and one time Spectre candidate who single-handedly held off three of the most ruthless mercenary groups in the galaxy in the heart of the Terminus Systems (INCLUDING the same mercenary group Warden Kuril is a part of), on a station renowned for being the galaxy's Wretched Hive for three days with just a sniper rifle; a master thief so adept at her craft that no one recognises her hacking an advertisement terminal in a public space in broad daylight, or speaking to a woman/man who is both thought dead and renowned as a legendary figure for stopping Saren and the Geth; a scientist who killed people with farming equipment and participated in mass population control experiments; and a genetically engineered member of a race of Blood Knights previously under the care of a big shot warlord
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