Just Eat Gilligan: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

[[Plot Induced Stupidity]] on a grand scale. An entire show whose continued existence depends on its castmembers ''not'' doing one simple, easy-to-think-of thing that could solve all of their problems and wrap everything up in a neat little package. It's the Helen Keller of [[Genre Blindness]]. It's any [[Fridge Logic|question]] the viewer may have to which the only sensible answer is: "[[Anthropic Principle|Because then there'd be no show]]/movie/novel/game, that's why." 

 

Not to be confused with [[Just Eat Him]]. When a villain falls prey to this trope, it is often [[Never Recycle Your Schemes]]. See also [[The Millstone]], when one character is the cause of this situation, and [[Fawlty Towers Plot]], when the source is a lie. If they ''did'' eat Gilligan, that would be an example of there being [[No Party Like a Donner Party]]. Contrast with [[For Want of a Nail]], [[Who Will Bell the Cat?]].

 

* ''[[Ranma ½]]'' has the age old question of why the people cursed by the Jusenkyo springs didn't just cure themselves while they were still there.

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' features several occasions where a bad guy could achieve his goal without an obligatory Duel, but nevertheless does one for some unknown reason. Repeatedly lampshaded in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]''.

{{quote|'''Yami Yugi:''' Did you even consider ''just asking me for it''? I mean, do you have any ''idea'' how much time and money you've wasted with this whole facade? People have ''died'' because you wanted a necklace! ''I killed a gay clown'', for Ra's sake!}}

{{quote|'''Rare Hunter:''' We are here to take your rarest card.

'''Joey:''' You mean you're gonna kick the crap out of me and steal it?

'''Joey:''' ...wouldn't it be much easier just to skip the first step?

'''Rare Hunter:''' Yes. Yes, it would. ''(proceeds with card game)'' }}

{{quote|'''Marik''': "We are going to challenge him to a card game! But this will be no ordinary card game. This one will take place... On a boat!"

'''Bakura''': "Why a boat?"

'''Bakura''': Why do we need to play a card game against him?

'''Marik''': "Foolish fool! The card game is integral to the plot. The ''evil'' plot, of which ''I'' am the evil mastermind!" }}

{{quote|'''Bakura''': "Can't we just kill him?"

'''Marik''': "No, and even if we did, those EFF-tards would just censor it." }}

* In ''[[Patlabor]]'', SV2 Division 2 is often derided for the massive collateral damage they cause while fighting crime... and 90% of those are caused by Ohta. Now, his gung-ho, gun-loving attitude is supposed to be played for laughs, and he is a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]] really, but just the same, getting rid of him would've saved much of SV2's troubles.

** Note that in the manga version, Ohta is shown to be less incompetent than his anime counterparts.

** This is reinforced in the second movie, where he cooly demonstrates that he's capable of aiming from the hip with their [[Humongous Mecha]] and nailing a moving target; the recruits he was drilling at the time couldn't fathom the purpose of the exercise but are impressed nonetheless.

* In ''[[Inuyasha]]'', the heroine has the ability to travel back and forth in time to Ancient Japan. Presumably, she and her friends who remain in the past after the defeat of Naraku could arrange to preserve the information on how it was done in such a way that Kagome could easily discover it in the present, take the information back to the ''past'' where the as-yet-undefeated Naraku is still wreaking havoc and use it to defeat him. Of course, trying to explain the logistics of [[Timey-Wimey Ball|such a paradox-based plan]] would most likely make all of the characters heads' explode, which would ''itself'' end the series ''right there.''

* ''[[Dragon Ball]] Z'' plot lines tend to play out along the following lines: A powerful foe appears, none of the Z fighters are strong enough to defeat him (or they spend so long messing around that he is allowed to reach full power), he kills lots of innocent people whilst the Z fighters train to become stronger, the villain is confronted and the strongest fighter barely manages to scrape through with a win, and then the magical dragon balls are used to wish all of the dead civilians back to life. However, The dragon balls grant ''wishes'', so the protagonists could wish for pretty much anything they want (within certain ill-defined boundaries). Not once does anyone think to wish for the villain to be weaker, or to be frozen in ice, or to be put to sleep, or to be transported to the centre of the sun. Vegeta is at least smart enough to try to wish himself to be more powerful, but this is only before his [[Heel Face Turn]] and so naturally he fails. The idea apparently never reoccurs to him. The show highlights the ridiculous ease with which the good guys are able to gather the balls so it is unclear why they never think to use them for anything other than resurrection. Even if they 'wasted' their wish by using it to destroy the villain the innocents would only remain dead for a year until the next wish could be made.

** It is stated several times that the Dragonballs are unable to grant any wish that is beyond the power of the creator of the Dragonballs. This means that said creator would have to be able to defeat the villain my normal means in order to harm them in any way with the Dragonballs.

** This needs an edit. Krillin HAS tried to wish the villain of the month defeated, and was informed by the Dragon that it was not powerful enough to do so. How powerful are the dragons? Well, the first one we see in the series is One-Shotted by Evil Picollo back when Goku was still a kid. So, overall, very weak compared to ANY enemy by the time Goku's grown up, due to power inflation. Kuririn also failed to wish the Androids into humans for the same reason, the dragon was too weak.

*** Really, any questions about "Why don't they just wish for ______?" are answered by [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch|actually watching any of the episodes where they summon the dragon]]. The characters ''try'' most of the "hurr durr it's so simple" wishes, only for Shenlong to say that it's beyond his power. Basically he can only do so much and is not as omnipotent as people assume of your typical genie.

 

* Rogue From ''[[Marvel Comics]]'' is a mutant who broods constantly because her mutant power has the potential to kill anyone she comes physical contact with. However, since mutant negation technology is widely available (and has been shown to work on her in the past), it should be no problem to simply make a necklace or something with the embedded technology and just put an on/off switch on the circuit. End of meaningless brooding.

** One of the explanations is also that most of the technology was developed by people who hate mutants and want to kill them, and thus using their inventions for her own benefit offends her morals. It would be roughly equivalent to taking a vaccine developed by Nazis who had experimented on imprisoned Jews to perfect it... some people wouldn't have a moral problem with that, some would, Rogue can simply be assumed to be the latter.

*** Additionally, one of the X-Men's recurring allies -- Forge -- has invented a device that is capable of ''permanently'' neutralizing a mutant's powers. Which means he has already made the basic theoretical leap re: neutralizing mutant powers. At this point, building a version of the device that only acts temporarily, or is conveniently portable and easily reversible, is only a matter of application. So somebody get Forge and Hank McCoy into the lab already. Or ask Reed Richards or Tony Stark for a consult.

 

* Bob Denver, a.k.a. Gilligan, [[Lampshade Hanging|hung a lampshade]] on ''Gilligan's Island'' himself in the film ''Back to the Beach''.

{{quote|'''Bartender:''' Hey, I knew a guy who could build a nuclear reactor out of coconuts but couldn't fix a two-foot hole in a boat.}}

** Giselle has the mentality of the typical [[Damsel in Distress]], making her brain the size of a walnut to figure that out, its her time the real world does she become [[Genre Savvy]] enough to save the day.

* "Stagecoach". John Ford was once asked why, during the climactic chase scene, the Indians didn't just shoot the horses to stop the stagecoach? "Because the movie would have ended right there", he replied.

{{quote|I asked Michael why it was easier to train oil drillers to become astronauts than it was to train astronauts to become oil drillers, and he told me to shut the fuck up, so that was the end of that talk.}}

 

== Literature ==

** [[Big Bad|Voldemort]] would have been able to kill Harry many times in the series if he hadn't arrogantly insisted on having to kill Harry personally. Since his wand and Harry's are linked and unable to work properly against each other, Voldemort instead spends half the series being thwarted by this connection and half the final book trying to find a loophole by using other wands, when at any time he could have just ordered his servants to kill Harry on sight for him.

*** Though there is the point that Voldemort runs a fairly EVIL group, which has mixed loyalties, a near amatuer can take out the best Magician given surprise or some other advantage (Draco vs Dumbledore, Harry vs whoever) means that theoratically any of the Death Eaters could take out Voldemort, and the fact that Voldemort's ace in the hole, immortality, merely means he is reduced to a wandering spirit instead of outright killed... You must realize that Voldemort rules through FEAR and by keeping an image of supremacy and invulnerability. So... no, he CAN'T ask one of his minions to destroy his arch-nemesis for him. One, it makes him look bad. Two, it makes his minion look TOO GOOD...

*** Also, the prophecy in a round about way said that only one could kill the other, so he most likely decided not to waste the manpower doing something he believed to be pointless anyway.

**** The prophecy is a valid objection, but the former one doesn't quite fly—Voldemort's most fanatically loyal Death Eater, the one who serves him because she genuinely worships him and not because of fear, is also his #1 killer. Asking Bellatrix to soften Harry up first and then putting in the kill shot himself would have worked for Voldemort ''far'' better than what he actually tried. To be fair, Bellatrix isn't out of Azkaban until book five, leaving Voldemort a good excuse for the first four books.

**** Ironically, the heroes suffer the same failure in reverse—they keep acting as if the Prophecy means that Harry is the only one who should ''fight'' Voldemort, when all it specifies is that he is the only one who can ''kill'' Voldemort. Harry would very likely have had an easier time pulling that off, with less reliance on giant strokes of luck, if Dumbledore had simply beaten Voldemort until he couldn't move and then asked Harry to finish up.

** In the first book, when Harry, Ron and Hermione discovered that Quirrell planned to steal the Philosopher's Stone, rather than trying to stop him themselves, why didn't they tell the school's teachers or staff about Quirrel's plans? Granted, they tried to inform Dumbledore about it and were told he wasn't at the school at that moment. But there were so many other teachers and members of the school's staff who were far more capable than three first-year students and would have handled the situation much better.

*** They did try to tell McGonagall, but she refused to listen and just insisted that the stone was protected well enough. Still, they might have tried harder or tried other teachers.

**** To be fair, McGonagall is the Deputy Headmistress—in Dumbledore's absence she's the most senior teacher in the school. Going to any other staff member would not be likely to do anything useful, as she'd just pull rank on them. As for the kids being more convincing, they're ''eleven''. Plus, McGonagall was being singularly obtuse; since the entire plan of putting the Philosopher's Stone down there was to decoy the villain into going after it, an attack on the Stone should have been ''expected''. And Dumbledore's first absence from the campus in months is the most obvious time for that attack to occur, yet she still considers the kids' story to somehow be intrinsically unbelievable. Really, [[Adults Are Useless|Adults Were Useless]] here.

**** Don't forget, you can't get off the school grounds with Apparitions and Portkeys (the closest to this is Floo Powder). But the area right around the castle itself, {{spoiler|(since Snape and Malfoy apparate away right as soon as they enter the forest)}} makes me think that Moody had to have Harry get off the school grounds. Since the maze would not be in school grounds, Harry could be taken directly to Voldemort, everyone would think his death was an accident, and Moody would not be suspected at all.

***** 'Not being suspected' is irrelevant to Barty's purpose, as his only reason for being there at all is to set up Harry's kindapping. So long as he can physically carry Harry off of Hogwarts grounds, Barty has no reason to come back after that's done. So he really has no excuse for not assigning Harry a detention in the Forbidden Forest, escorting Harry out there himself, and then sapping the kid over the head and bamfing away with him the instant they're outside the Hogwarts immediate anti-Apparition zone. Heck, there's a gift-wrapped opportunity for him to do that in the series; when Barty Sr. caught up to them at the edge of the Forbidden Forest and tried to warn them. Instead of leading Barty Sr. off to be murdered, he should just have left him there with the people and escorted Harry "to Dumbledore's office", and then yoicks and away. Instead, [[Idiot Ball]].

**** In the books, the maze was on the Quidditch Pitch so it was on the school grounds, even though the much larger movie maze may not have been. But this doesn't mean you're wrong as it's implied portkeys can be used in Hogwarts if the person has the authority to do so - Dumbledore made one to send Harry and the Weasleys to Grimmauld Place in ''Order of the Phoenix''. Crouch Jr. wouldn't have been able to make one until Dumbledore gave him permission to do so. (I believe it's pretty widely accepted that the cup would have sent the winner back to the entrance of the maze - he just set a different location!)

*** Also, why did the school's staff let Harry participate? They were aware of the suspiciousness of Harry's name coming out of the goblet, as he said that he didn't put it there, and him participating goes against the rules, which stated that there would be only 3 participants, who also had to be older than what Harry was at that point. Not to mention that Harry himself wasn't even interested in participating in the first place. If they hadn't made him participate, Voldemort wouldn't have been able to restore his body, and Cedric wouldn't have been murdered.

**** It was mentioned earlier that anyone chosen by the Goblet was put under a powerful, binding magical contract, which meant that they ''had'' to participate. Dumbledore warns of this when he tells the students who are of age to not sign up frivolously, but to be certain that they want to potentially go through with it.

** [[SF Debris]] also noted that judicious use of a [[Time Bomb]] in the pilot would have turned the series into little more than a TV movie. {{spoiler|The [[Sadistic Choice]] at the end of "Caretaker" was, should ''Voyager'' destroy the Caretaker Array and leave themselves with hoofing it home, or use the Array to get home and let the Kazon enslave the Ocampas? Janeway chose to blow the Array. Chuck Sonnenburg's solution was to set a time bomb aboard the Array, set to go off just after it chucked ''Voyager'' back to the Alpha Quadrant.}}

** For more information on Janeway's questionable actions and possible justifications, check out Trek Nation's [http://www.treknation.com/articles/court_martial_janeway_intro.shtml The Court Martial of Captain Janeway].

*** He's not just put in charge of morale, but also of ''cooking'', of all things. His [[Lethal Chef|food is so awful]] that in one episode he actually ''poisons'' the ship with his cooking fumes. Not the ship's crew, but the ''actual ship itself.''

*** What makes the above example even more ridiculous is that his reaction to experiencing those traumatising memories was to hallucinate, pick up a phaser and hold Naomi hostage in the Mess Hall, believing he was protecting children in a combat-zone. It took a while for Tuvok to talk him down. And that is one of the memories you want someone ''else'' to remember? The poor sod who next undergoes that could easily kill half of his crew, blow a hole in the side of the ship or get himself shot!

*** Also, is asking someone who witnessed the destruction of his homeworld, and has demonstrated long-lasting psychological scars from that event on more than one occasion, really the best person to give advice on subjecting people's mental health to images of a massacre? You'd think, given his background, he'd be against this?!

* In ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'', GOB routinely screws up Michael's plans to save the company, week after week after week, even to the point of undoing what good Michael has achieved. Given how often this occurs, it is surprising that Michael always has a change of heart right after he decides to finally get rid of GOB for good. Indeed, the humor of the series mainly stems from the [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]] that Michael should stop caring about his family, but he is unable to.

** If only [[Only Sane Man|Michael]] had moved away from his incompetent, irresponsible and immoral family, he wouldn't have to deal with their shenanigans. To his credit, he did try to leave in the beginning of season two. But the SEC was extra suspicious at that point.

** Remember that shortly before obtaining Death's scythe they had already witnessed the failure of the 'stab Lucifer to death' plan with Gabriel's sword—while Gabriel was wielding it. If an ''archangel'' can't survive long enough in close combat to even get within stabbing range of Lucifer, much less actually finish stabbing him, then what hope does Sam or Dean have?

*** In addition, ''the entire plot arc'' of season 5 is based on the problem that engaging Lucifer in mortal combat will, assuming you're powerful enough that he can't just crush you effortlessly, involve enough collateral damage to destroy the Earth. If getting Lucifer dead was the only problem they had then all they'd have needed to do was sit back and let Michael have his shot. It was getting rid of Lucifer ''without'' the apocalyptic battle was the tricky part.

** Which anticipated the real-life Executive Order banning US involvement in political assassinations by almost a decade.

* ''[[Dennis the Menace (TV series)|Dennis the Menace]]''. Mr. Wilson's life would be much better if the Mitchells would move away. The worst part is that the man is [[Genre Savvy]] enough to know this, and his warnings to the other characters are tragically ignored.

'''Sampson''': But then there'd be no play.

'''Prince''': Oh. Carry on, then. }}

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* The argument has been made many times for detractors of the game that the only way to have a successful character in the ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'' RPG is to ''never follow any clues''. Being based on the themes and moods of [[H.P. Lovecraft|Lovecraftian]] [[Cosmic Horror|stories]], curiosity has less of a tendency to kill the cat as it does to [[Up to Eleven|trepan it, rearrange its anatomy as much as possible without killing it]], [[Serial Escalation|magically reversing the labotomy and then suspending it in complete darkness while an unseen dog barks at it for all eternity]].

** Then again, in ''CoC'' getting killed in new and exciting ways (or going permanently insane) is ''kinda the point''.

 

== Video Games ==

* If any of the three heroes in ''[[Fable]] 2'' died, the villain would be completely unable to complete his plan. Conveniently, one of them is a [[Complete Monster]]. Not that {{spoiler|Theresa}} would have let that happen.

* This is a recurrent theme in many genres of games, usually on the part of the villains. Why didn't ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]''' Bowser build a tall, sheer wall... anywhere? Why didn't Dr. Robotnik just line up enough spikes that [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] could never clear them? Why didn't [[Diablo]] send a lone overlord to the first level of the Tristram cathedral? Because then [[Rule of Fun|we wouldn't have any of these games]]. Or if we did, they would suck.

* The plots of ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' and its expansion ''The Ballad of Gay Tony'' would be '''enormously''' shorter if the main characters were allowed to use the massive amounts of money they earn to just pay off the debts of the characters they are protecting. By about the middle of ''IV'' specifically, Niko can easily be sitting on over a quarter million dollars but you'll still be doing missions for loan sharks that Roman owes money to without the option of just paying them off. This wouldn't solve ''all'' the problems but it would make them much more manageable.

* The plot of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'', although the cast can be forgiven for not realizing it under the circumstances. {{spoiler|It takes them 6 full stories of them slaughtering eachother to finally halfway the 7th episode realize that none of that would happen if they'd just trust eachother for once. When they start the 8th story with this information and work together from the start, it becomes no more than a ''[[Curb Stomp Battle]]'' against the true enemies.}}

* ''[[Terraria]]'' has the "Guide" who does things like letting monsters into your safe house, prompting many a player to think this trope.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* In the 1990s ''[[Incredible Hulk]]'' animated series, the military would invariably show up and ruin everything at the exact moment Bruce Banner was undergoing a procedure that would eliminate the Hulk once and for all. If they wanted to get rid of the Hulk so badly, they could have left him alone.

** Of course, this assumes that the military was watching the cartoon. That they're in. General Ross was convinced Banner was a dangerous villain, it was sort of the point of his character, it's not like he could read that week's script and say "Oh, if we don't interrupt him Banner will cure himself, let's just stay home this week."

** This was at its absolute worst in the episode where Timmy enters the TV. They didn't even give him some paper-thin reason as to why he couldn't wish the remote back to him and away from Vicky. It's never even ''mentioned.''

*** Actually, there was a time Vicky accidentally got a hold of a magic reality resetting watch. He couldn't wish it back. Apparently you can't wish magical items away from whoever's using it.

* ''[[The Transformers (animation)|The Transformers]]'': Good thing the Decepticons never thought of getting rid of [[The Starscream|Starscream]]. He's the only reason the Autobots kept surviving, or even [http://www.cracked.com/article_16954_5-reasons-megatron-should-have-fired-starscream-years-ago.html woke up in the first place]. One time he even saved the cornered Autobots just for the sake of ruining Megatron's plans. Right in front of him, complete with a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|smug one-liner]].

** However, one could argue Starscream had the right idea. If they just blew up the Ark (or at least slagged the Autobots in their stasis lock), they could have conquered Earth without Autobot interference.

*** Some other comics and whatnot have pointed out that Megatron doesn't get rid of Starscream because he's a talented scientist capable of truly remarkable feats of engineering. It's just that Starscream being a scientist was usually a case of an [[Informed Ability]] on the show. One of the only times he displayed his abilities was building an entire combiner team... ''after'' Megatron kicked him out of the Decepticons. Of course, his creation of Bruticus basically got him back in Megatron's good graces, so lather, rinse, repeat.

*** There's also that when you're in a situation where you cannot replace casualties, you cannot really afford to get rid of ''anyone''. If there were more Transformers lining up outside a recruiting office to become Decepticons then Megatron could afford to dispose of one of his more competent squad leaders and fighters. But there aren't, so its either 'rely on being able to keep Starscream in line' or 'Try to fight a war with a big hole in the TO&E'. A similar dynamic existed with Beast Wars Megatron and Tarantulus—if BW Megatron had anybody to replace him with, and wasn't so direly short-handed, he'd gladly have shoved Tarantulus into a lava pit. But he didn't, so he didn't.

* [[Spanner in the Works|Considering how many times he screws them up,]] [[Pinky and The Brain|if Brain got rid of Pinky]] or at least kept him as far away from his plans as he could manage, he'd rule the world within a week, if that.

** It would seem so - but in "That Smarts," Pinky becomes as intelligent as the Brain, to the delight of the latter... until a) Pinky starts indicating flaws in every single planet-conquering scheme and b) the Brain realises that the ''only'' way any of his plans will succeed is if one of them is an idiot. {{spoiler|So he makes himself as "smart" (i.e. as stupid) as Pinky normally is... unfortunately, Pinky's seen how miserable the Brain is now that the balance of power has shifted, and he makes himself as stupid as he was before! Needless to say, [[Status Quo Is God|this doesn't stick]] for the rest of the series.}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Bad Writing Index]]

[[Category:Contrived Stupidity Tropes]]

[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]