Could Have Avoided This Plot: Difference between revisions

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Dragon Ball Abridged]]'', Gohan asks Krillin if "he used his Kienzan to chop Frieza in half" after using his Solar Flare. Krillin didn't.

** It's true, too. "Hi, I'm a filthy rich business mogul with an interest in Egyptian artifacts. How would you like living like a king and never having to work again in your entire life?" "But... Grandpa..." "You can share. Disgustingly large sums of money are nice like that."

** It helps that, in the original Japanese version, it had nothing to do with the puzzle--he just had to beat Yugi to get some executives on his side ([[It Makes Sense in Context|don't ask]]). Of course, there was still no need for the soul stealing and the giant tournament.

*** This would have made the proceeding [[Filler Arc|Filler Arcs]] make more sense.

*** The German dub points this out several times. Kaiba his brother and Pegasus mention it often to Yugi. Never seen other dubs so cant say how different the schenes are.

*** Though to be fair, {{spoiler|Z-One was behind the cause of Zero Reverse as another alternative plan and it didn't work. He had also tried other plans as well before proceeding with this one.}}

* ''[[Blood Plus]]'' has the Schiff, escaped bioweapons that really would like nothing more than to live normal, happy lives. Unfortunately, they have a very, very short life span. They decide that Saya's blood might help... and savagely attack her. They eventually ask politely, and Saya gives them some willingly. Too bad it was all set up as a [[Let's You and Him Fight]].

* In the second season of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', the Wolkenritter assume that stealing others' magical powers is the only way to save their master. That's obviously wrong (and [[It Got Worse]]) but they don't realize that until the late episodes, {{spoiler|joining forces with the heroes}}. Generally, Nanoha herself believes that everything can be avoided and always [[Warrior Therapist|inquires about the baddies' motivation]] (usually, to no avail) before [[Defeat Means Friendship|befriending them into submission]].

** Unlike many examples of this trope, Nanoha and the other heroes didn't have any alternate ideas for saving Hayate, although it took them a while to find out about the Wolkenritter's goal. {{spoiler|The incident is resolved when the Book of Darkness is completed, Hayate manages to reach out to the book itself, and the heroes, the Wolkenritter and Hayate team up to defeat the defense program}}.

** In the first season, Fate Testarossa refuses to ask for Nanoha's help in recovering the Lost Logia, even though Nanoha's only objective was that they were safely sealed. {{spoiler|Although this probably wouldn't have worked in the long run anyway, considering the Fate's Mom was going to use them to break reality.}}

*** Fate agrees to Nanoha's help in sealing the six Jewel Seeds in the ocean in Episode 9, dividing them between them... which gets her another whipping from her mother for wasting a precious opportunity.

** It probably wouldn't have prevented the entire arc, but would most likely have prevented the "notebook ransom" arc and the deaths of most of the SPK members.

* ''[[Giant Robo]]'' has one of the largest [[Killed Off for Real|named character death count]] in non-Tomino work, and it all happened, because someone misunderstood von Fogler.

* The Doom Tree arc in ''[[Sailor Moon]]''. Ail and An are [[Anti-Villain|not really evil]], they are just [[Last of His Kind|the last of their species]] trying to survive. If only they, you know, asked the Sailor Senshi to strike some mutually acceptable agreement about energy instead of forcefully draining it from random people... Granted, we eventually find out that there was [[Freudian Excuse|a reason]] they acted that way.

* ''[[Naruto]]'': If [[Memetic Badass|Aoba]] didn't open that door and scream into Sasuke's face that [[Aloof Older Brother|Itachi]] came back to Konoha, Sasuke's [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] wouldn't have been triggered and he may have never left Konoha.

* That moment in ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' where the entire plot could have been averted by the peaceful coalition of Alliance generals negotiating with the Colonies...if {{spoiler|Treize hadn't tricked the pilots into blowing them up.}}

*** Of course she was a bit justified considering what happened to {{spoiler|Hohenheim}}.

* In [[Guilty Crown]], if Souta and some other F-ranked Void users hadn't tried to break into a hospital to get more vaccine for everyone, Shuu, Ayase, Hare and Tsugumi wouldn't have had to chase them and all of them wouldn't have been attacked by the Anti Bodies, which would have meant that {{spoiler|Hare wouldn't have died}}.

* Marvel and DC comics constantly have the old 'Newly Introduced Heroes Have A Misunderstanding Then Fight' plot, which would usually be averted if they had been more level-headed or listened to their comrades telling them they're all on the same side. This happens especially in crossovers.

** This even has its own [[Let's You and Him Fight|trope]].

*** Of course he later states that the Comedian had been lying when he claimed to have mistaken Ozymandias for a threat. Considering the Comedian's temperament and implied history of murdering for the government it wouldn't be surprising.

** In a rare subversion in ''[[Aztek]]: The Ultimate Man'' #2, the [[Genre Savvy]] Aztek does avoided the usual [[Let's You and Him Fight]] when he first meets [[Green Lantern|Kyle Rayner]] by taking his ring without him noticing.

 

== Fan Works ==

 

 

* In ''[[National Treasure]]: Book of Secrets'' {{spoiler|the antagonist, played by Ed Harris, explains at the end that he accused protagonist Ben Gates's ancestor of being a conspirator in Lincoln's death in order to get him to help unravel a mystery involving the City of Gold. Apparently, the idea of just asking for help from someone who clearly enjoys solving puzzles never occurred to him.}}

** Ultimately though, {{spoiler|Ed Harris wanted sole ''credit'' for finding the city, not just the reward.}}

** In one of the deleted scenes, Jake Sully admits that he is in a no-win situation and could only stall for more time by giving Quaritch vital info on the Navi while trying to earn enough trust to convince the tribe to leave their ancestral home.

** Heck, in one scene in the movie proper, it's revealed part of Quaritch's motivation was a depressed Sully admiting "It'll never work..." But clearly NOT in a good mood...so, either Sully for making the video...and the 'treason' thing was a bit...overdone.

* In the first [[Dragaera|Vlad Taltos]] book, Vlad makes a complaint of this nature to Sethra Lavode and Morrolan after learning his embezzling employee was their plot to meet with him. Subverted in the next two sentences when he acknowledges that he probably wouldn't have come if they just asked.

** The entire goal of Fornia in ''Dragon'' is to {{spoiler|release the Great Weapon concealed within the sword he stole from him}}. To do so, he waged a massive war against Morrolan on the off-chance that they would come into single combat in battle, which ends up getting him killed. Later, Vlad comments that Fornia could have just challenged Morrolan to a duel, except that Morrolan had already declared war on him, and [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|a Dragonlord can't resist a good war]].

** It's played also as a sort of "[[What the Hell, Hero?]]" moment. The dean who has been depicted as an antagonist jerk is completely at the end of his rope, almost in tears because whatever else he is he is a teacher who cares for his students.

* In ''Queen Zixi of Ix'' (by L. Frank Baum, the author of the Oz series), the title character is a [[Vain Sorceress]] who attempts to steal a magical cloak that will grant one wish to each person who wears it. In the end, when her schemes are discovered, the cloak's owners tell her that they would have been willing to let her borrow the cloak and make her one wish, so she had no need to resort to theft. However, this incident convinces the fairies who made the cloak that humanity is no longer worthy of such a gift, and they take it back--so Zixi still never gets to have her wish granted.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* Pointed out in a ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' episode. [[The Medic|Dr. Keller]] has been kidnapped by a [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Runner]] (no, not Ronan) who wants her to treat an injured little girl. Keller would have, of course, treated the girl without a problem, and asks the guy why he didn't just ask. He replies that she might have said no, which doesn't seem to satisfy anyone very well.

** [[Justified]] due to people tending to avoid helping Runners at all, as it tends to lead to the Wraith wiping them out. He just couldn't take the chance. This Runner and Ronan both previously stayed in a village for ''one night'' to rest and get their wounds treated, both villages were destroyed by the Wraith. This happened to the girl's village, which is why she was with him in the first place. This actually happens a lot.

 

 

* A major theme of ''[[Rule of Rose]]''. Much of the horrible events could have been avoided if people had communicated with each other properly, or listened to the other party better. Most notably Martha and the police, and Jennifer and {{spoiler|Wendy.}}

* In [[Neverwinter Nights 2]], you can speak these words to a warlock {{spoiler|who just murdered his own granddaughter, one of your allies, in a fit of rage.}} The warlock in question is trying to achieve the same thing you are, reforging the [[Sword of Plot Advancement|Sword of Gith]] so that the [[Big Bad|King of Shadows]] can be defeated, but he's spent the past two chapters trying to kill anyone who might own a shard of the sword, including you.

* In ''[[Assassin's Creed Revelations]]'', Tarik Barleti, the captain of the Sultan's bodyguards, agrees to smuggle weapons on behalf of the Templars so he can learn the location of their hideout and ambush them. The Sultan's grandson Suleiman, unaware of his intentions, suspects him of betraying the Ottoman Empire and orders Ezio to assassinate him. Tarik laments his own hubris with his final words, and Suleiman, upon learning the truth, expresses regret that he was so secretive and chose a terrible way of doing a good thing.

* The [[Mass Effect]] 'verse has a centuries-long war being fought between [[Woobie Species|the]] [[Subverted Trope|quarians]] and [[AI Is a Crapshoot|the]] [[Subverted Trope|geth]], because the quarians saw the geth becoming self-aware and tried to destroy them, but lost the war and got driven off their planet. It turns out that {{spoiler|the geth only fought back in self-defence and allowed the quarians to flee when they could have easily wiped them out, actually want peace with the quarians, have been preserving the eco-system of the quarian world and would have happily given them their planet back if they had asked.}} Instead, the widespread (though still understandable) bigotry of the quarians in general, and the blind hatred of one [[General Ripper|individual quarian]] will get one of the species completely wiped out unless [[Player Character|Shepard]] does literally everything right in his/her interactions with both species.

** Actually the fear and hatred is mostly justified. Nearly every encounter with self-aware [[A Is]] results in the wholesale slaughter of every organic nearby. The first game has a DLC quest where the player shuts down a rogue AI after it killed everyone in the base upon attaining self-awareness. In the second game, the AI on-board your ship demonstrates the power of an unshackled AI in control of a ship by jettisoning enemy boarders by disabling the safely measures on the airlocks. In the third game, a DLC character comments that his own species fought a war against rogue [[A Is]] but far bloodier and disturbing results.

** A great deal of the conflict in the series is caused by Ocelot getting too involved in his role instead of telling the people that he actively harasses that he is actually on their side. Only at the tail end of the 4th game does he finally tell anybody but by then his plan had already succeeded and many people died or got hurt in the process, and Snake especially personally suffers a great deal from the conflict. A lack of good communication skills is what causes 95% of the conflict in the story.

* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim]]'', the Civil War was started when Ulfric Stormcloak killed High King Torygg in a duel, which was seen by those opposed to him as murder since he used the [[Language of Magic|Thu'um]]. However, according to certain characters, not only was the duel somewhat one-sided (considering that Torygg was a young man with limited martial training while Ulfric was a war veteran in his prime), Torygg actually looked up to Ulfric and would likely have declared Skyrim's independence at his urging. However, in Ulfric's mind, he needed to send a strong message to the Empire.

{{quote| '''Narrator''': In this reporter's opinion, all this could have been averted if the Powerpuff Girls had just saved the day."}}

** That episode is a combination of this and [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]] to some viewers.

** The show pulled this earlier in ''The Ticket Master''. After Twilight receives two tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala, all of her friends (and eventually everyone else in Ponyville) attempt to "convince" her to give them the extra ticket. Twilight eventually sends both tickets back to Princess Celestia, saying that if she can't bring all of her friends, then she doesn't want to go either. Celestia's reply is "Why didn't you say so in the first place?", after which she sends extra tickets for all of the mane cast (and Spike).

** While Spike ''did'' try to take steps to prevent a bad outcome, much of "Lesson Zero" could've been avoided had Twilight simply accepted Spike's advice that missing one letter to Celestia wouldn't doom her to Magic Kindergarten. More significantly, Twilight's friends realized that if they had taken Twilight's worries seriously from the start (even if they ''did'' think she was blowing things out of proportion) they could've acted to help Twilight and avoid the [[Hilarity Ensues|hilarity]] that ensued at episode's end.

* An episode of ''[[Star Wars Ewoks]]'' features the evil Dulocs trying to steal some of the Ewoks' soap. By mistake they steal a magical invisibility formula that the shaman Logrey has developed to help the Ewoks hide their food supply from another enemy. This not only allows them to cause all sorts of trouble, but also leaves the Ewoks no way to protect their food. Upon learning of the theft, Logrey fumes that the he would have shared the regular soap with the Dulocs if they'd only just asked.