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{{trope}}
{{quote|''I'll turn him into a flea, a harmless, little flea, and then I'll put that flea in a box, and then I'll put that box inside of another box, and then I'll mail that box to myself, and when it arrives *evil laugh*, [[Large Ham|'''I'LL SMASH IT WITH A HAMMAH!''']] It's ''brilliant'', ''BRILLIANT'', '''''BRILLIANT''''', I tell you! Genius, I say!... [[Comically Missing the Point|Or, to save on postage]], [[Subverted Trope|I'll just poison him with this.]]''|'''Yzma''', ''[[The Emperor's New Groove (Disney)|The Emperors New Groove]]''}}
 
{{quote| }}
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A character (usually the villain) comes up with a ridiculously elaborate plot that is so meticulously planned out that [[Tempting Fate|it can't possibly fail...]]
 
[[Spanner in Thethe Works|But it will.]] [[Mundane Solution|So why didn't they come up with a simpler plan?]]
 
There's a simple... um... explanation. This character has a Complexity Addiction. They are [[Genre Blind]] and addicted to trying [[Xanatos Gambit|Xanatos Gambits]]. They simply can't help but make [[No Kill Like Overkill|an overdone, overblown plan]].
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** It's actually starting to shape up that the entire arc was just him biding time and making damn sure he wasn't beaten before the [[MacGuffin]] fused with him.
** There is one other thing he got out of it- he sealed Yamamoto's powers with Wonderweiss. Arguably, the good guys suffer from this too. Rather than just have their two or three captains cut through the fodder to save time, they decided to do a Good version of [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]], just so that the lieutenants would get some screentime.
* ''[[Mazinger Z (Anime)|Mazinger Z]]'': In one episode [[The Dragon]] Baron Ashura captured [[The Hero]] Kouji and [[Humongous Mecha|Mazinger-Z]] and gave him the "join-us-or-die" choice. After the Kouji's predictable answer, Ashura sentenced him to death, and instead of shooting him, Ashura's [[Mook|Mooks]] started a bunch of giant power saws and drills to cut Mazinger-Z to pieces. To be fair, Kouji was inside Mazinger-Z and they could not get him out, so they could not just shoot him.
* Madara {{spoiler|or whoever he really is}} from ''[[Naruto]]'' also seems to have a pretty bad case. He can become intangible at will, warp people into a pocket dimension, and can teleport himself (or others) wherever he likes, but when it's time to capture the protagonist, he'd much rather delegate the task to less capable subordinates or start a ninja war than simply use his own powers to easily capture the protagonist when he's asleep or off-guard.
 
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== Films ==
* As the page quote implies, Yzma from the ''[[The Emperor's New Groove (Disney)|The Emperors New Groove]]'' (and the [[Spin-Off]] series ''[[The Emperor's New School (Animation)|The Emperors New School]]'') has an affinity for making complex plans to destroy Kuzco, which of course never work. Kronk [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this at least once.
* In the Tim Conway/Don Knotts movie ''The Private Eyes'', a witness to the Morley murder calls the title characters to Morley Manor, then arranges for every single person in the Manor other than the killer to appear to be murdered, in order to trick the murderer into confessing in front of two police officers. Why he couldn't just go to the police and ''tell'' them who the murderer was never got brought up. {{spoiler|Of course, Lord Morley never could get ''anything'' right.}}
* ''[[Austin Powers]]'' spoofs this trope as it commonly appears in spy films. [[Big Bad|Dr. Evil]] is notorious for making his plans to kill the titular character exceedingly complicated, such as in the first movie where he ties Austin and Vanessa to a pole suspended over a pool of water with mutated, enraged sea bass ready to eat them, in a secluded room with the door closed and one easily defeatable guard stationed there. [[Genre Savvy|Dr. Evil's son, Scott]], is [[Lampshade Hanging|usually the one who calls him out]] on these things and [[Stating the Simple Solution|states much easier ways]] to kill Austin.
* In ''[[The Bourne Identity]]'', Jason Bourne needs to get some information from a hotel receptionist, but he's afraid that the police will come after him or his girlfriend the moment any of them step inside. Therefore he comes up with a complicated plan of action, involving her entering, counting the number of steps she takes from the entrance, counting how many civilians, guards, etc. there are, and him then calling her via the lobby phone to plan further ahead. This is explained via Jason's voice-over as we see her doing this. As she looks at the telephone, the camera cuts to Jason outside, dialing the number. No answer. He hangs up in a hurry and prepares to go in, only to find her standing right behind him with the papers in hand.
{{quote| '''Jason:''' You just ''asked'' for it?}}
* The [[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]] villains are bad enough [[Bond Villain Stupidity|to name a whole separate trope]] - for instance, instead of simply killing Bond they [[Dr. No (Film)|beat him up and leave him in a somewhat easily escapable cell]], [[Live and Let Die (Filmfilm)|leave him in the middle of an alligator farm]], and of course, [[Blofeld Ploy|shoot a mook that failed them instead]].
 
 
== Literature ==
* [[Harry Potter|Voldemort]]'s biggest flaw (besides underestimating [[The Power of Love]]) is wanting everything he does to be as epic as possible, regardless of practicality. [[Conversation in Thethe Main Page|Take arguments pro]] [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|and con elsewhere]].
** This kind of thing is parodied in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' in the story "Torg Potter and the Giblets with Fiber". Millard Stoop (a parody of Voldemort) originally planned to curse the infant Torg Potter with a combination of curses that would make it into something small and forgetful that would constantly pee itself and spread the common cold to others. Yes, he was going to do this to a ''baby''. Also, the plot of the whole chapter is an elaborate [[Batman Gambit]] just like in the original (''Goblet of Fire'') to obtain some of Torg's blood... which ''starts'' with obtaining some of Torg's blood in order to enter him into the Try-Gizzard Tournament.
* This seems to be the generally accepted MO for the Yendi in novels set in ''[[Dragaera]]''.
* A major aspect of the White Court of vampires in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' is that they ''don't'' operate with simple, straightforward plans. In the White Court, approval and influence is based partially on the way one maneuvers against one's opponents, both within the Court and outside of it. A White Court vampire could simply have an enemy gunned down, but that would be met with serious disapproval and a loss of respect and grace, while taking that foe down in a [[Xanatos Gambit]] is viewed with admiration. So, it's ''institutional'' [[Complexity Addiction]].
** Oddly enough, there's a practical reason behind this, making it a (somewhat) justified trope. White Court Vampires do this to limit their accountability and culpability for their actions, which is important, since they work in and around human society far more than many other supernatural beings in the Dresdenverse. Hiring a gunman to shoot your rival can be easily traced back to you. Subtly goading another rival into a conflict with the first, so he hires the gunman insulates you from the consequences far better. White Court culture has grown up around this principle, with the most respected actions being those that "everyone knows" you were responsible for, but nobody can connect you to with any sort of actual evidence.
* In [[PGP. G. Wodehouse (Creator)|PG Wodehouse]]'s [[Jeeves and Wooster (Literaturenovel)|Jeeves and Wooster]] stories, Jeeves has quite a habit of this and it almost never fails, being stuffed with the grey matter.
** In ''Right Ho, Jeeves'' Bertie informs Jeeves that his plan, viz dressing Gussie Fink-Nottle up as the devil and sending him to a fancy dress party to romance a girl, is far too elaborate to ever work. In fact, Gussie forgets the address of the house it's held at and botches the whole thing. Even so this says more about Gussie than about the complexity of the plan.
* Tom Sawyer's plan for freeing Jim in ''[[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' might be the [[Ur Example]]. They could have simply swiped the keys to his shackles and sneaked off in the middle of the night, but Tom insists on sawing the leg off Jim's bed that the shackle is attached to and making a rope ladder just to leave behind as a clue and all manner of other silly things, [[Wrong Genre Savvy|just because that's how prisoners in the books he's read escape.]] He insists doing it the easy way "just ain't proper."
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{{quote| "First you tried to make him fail a drug test, then you tried to trade him off to other teams, and when those didn't work you tried to kill him...I guess just injuring him would have been what, too Tonya Harding-ish for you?"}}
** One episode of ''[[Monk]]'' had the killer in a coma for a year while the thing happened. How did he do it? With a bomb that was stuck to the bottom of the mailbox with a special type of glue that would hold out for a year, meaning it would be delivered in a year, after which it would go off when it finally got into the deliveree's hands. The possibility of it being delivered to the wrong address, of the victim moving, or of the bomb detonating too early or not at all don't seem to occur to the murderer.
* The Master in ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'', especially the Anthony Ainley incarnation. As the Rani once summed him up:
{{quote| "He'd get dizzy if he tried to walk in a straight line!"}}
* In ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' Jasmine's plan while possessing Cordelia gives the impression of being massively overcomplicated. Apparently she felt the need to unleash The Beast, make Connor think he was responsible for the apocalypse, have sex with him, blot out the sun, bring back Angelus, release him to generate even more chaos and possibly kill The Beast, which serves her, then give birth. Alternatively, she could have had sex with Connor, told Angel "I need some time to think", and left the city for a [[Express Delivery|month or two.]].
** One possible justification for this is that actually ''required'' the deaths The Beast caused to bring her forth, and that Jasmine lacked full control in the early days. This would also explain why "Cordelia" had a nightmare (which the audience saw her having, inside her own head) about a monstrous unknown demon - that ''works for her'' and she told to show up.
* This is Nate Ford's shtick in [[Leverage]]. Numerous characters have pointed out that he's addicted to running increasingly complex cons.
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== Toys ==
* ''[[Bionicle (Franchise)|Bionicle]]'': Makuta's original plan failed. So he came with something even more complicated. Some of his allies seriously complain about the over complexity, wanting to simply use brute force instead.
 
 
== Video Games ==
* Mephiles' plan from ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]]'' could have ended so early if he just {{spoiler|killed Elise, thereby releasing Iblis}}, but he had to overblow the whole plot, making the entire plan completely useless.
** Or he could even have just {{spoiler|[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (Let's Play)|cut up a few onions in front of her]]}}.
** Hell he could have skipped the manipulation altogether and just merge with the clearly unleashed Iblis in Silver's time period. It's not like Iblis is being subtle and hard to find.
* The Lich King in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has a truly epic case of this. He comes up with a plan to {{spoiler|transform your player into one of his 10/25 (depending on dungeon mode) greatest generals by allowing you to train up by killing off any number of already competent servants, including his 10 most powerful minions you can only kill when outnumbering them at least 9 to 1, then slaughter your way up to his inner sanctum and nearly kill him, before he kills you and raises you as undead.}} Alternatively, his plan could have gone something like this: Lord Marrowgar....okay I made you too big to ever leave the room, stay where you are. Drakuru, who I didn't kill like an idiot, send out your super-trolls. Deathwhisper rally the cultists! Saurfang lead the troops! Putridus release your plagues! Unleash the Darkfallen! The other 8 billion of you...Charge! I mean seriously, you idiots are still ''killing each other'' even though the sole reason you're here is to fight a guy who ''reanimates the dead''.
** This turns out to be explained by {{spoiler|what remains of Arthas' humanity deliberately holding him back. If the Scourge were left to their own devices (possibly still under the control of Ner'zhul) then they would wipe out the living. Possibly the ridiculous plan is a way to justify his [[Orcus Onon His Throne|inaction]]. No, I'm not holding back. My plan just relies on bringing me to the brink of destruction.}}
*** Also worth noting from the above, {{spoiler|Arthas' intervention}} appears to be in the Lich King's subconscious. Meaning {{spoiler|in his rational mind, the Lich King actually thought having 10/25 mortals farm his strongest generals and almost kill him, only to be killed and raised to serve him seemed like a good idea, and one that would have worked if he had the foresight to kill Tirion Fordring at the start of the fight as he easily could have.}}
* [[Dwarf Fortress]] [[Community (TV)/Dwarf Fortress|players]] in general ''love'' this trope. Why dispose of garbage by throwing it in a trash dump outside when you can reduce it to ash in magma or hurl it {{spoiler|into the bottomless pits of Hell}}? Why use a few [[Game Breaker|cage traps]] when you can build a pressurized-magma [[Wave Motion Gun]]? As for dealing with captured enemies... throwing them into a cavern or off of a tower is the ''simple'' way of dealing with them, but [[Blood Sport|gladiatorial combat]] and deranged [[Death Trap|death traps]] are extremely popular as well.
** Any feature, intended or not, someone will find a way to weaponize. Ignite artifacts to make incendiary booby-traps? Making drawbridge catapults to fire captive goblins at the next raiding party? Wait, let's drive a few dwarves berserk so they'll have to be slain and come back as violently vengeful ghosts, which we can turn against our enemies! Or setting up an elaborate gate and lever system to keep both Noble politics interesting and the population of [[Oh Crap|Carp]] well fed?
*** How about we start messing with the game files? Like increasing the body temperature of the common cat to create a trap based on cats breeding to a critical mass and the ensuring temperature rise wiping whole sections of the fortress of life/flammable material? How about making elephants breed faster with a higher body temperature and making that cat nuke into a medieval ICBM? Even better lets use strengthened doors and an invasion from Hell to flush the fortress of pesky kobold thieves?
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== Web Comics ==
* ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'':
** Nale has this as modus operandi, to the point where all his plans are regularly described as "needlessly complicated" by other characters. [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0255.html Case in point.] Apparently, he [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0725.html inherited this from his mother] (although she didn't rear him). Even his class (multiclass Fighter/Thief/Sorcerer specializing in enchantment spells) is pretty much the same as a Bard (his twin brother Elan's class) but more complicated.
** Xykon is the opposite of this trope, having a [[When All You Have Is a Hammer|simplicity addiction]]. He sees no point in creating elaborate plans or strategies when he can simply bombard an enemy with high level spells, or a target with [[Zerg Rush|thousands upon thousands of Hobgoblin soldiers]].
* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'' this is an affliction common to Sparks, whose enthusiasm for pushing the boundaries of science and creating amazing contraptions can sometimes blind them to the obvious. [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20091019 Just so]. Similarly if you ask a Spark to make a coffee machine, you end up with ''[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070618 this]''. Though to be fair, it does make ''perfect'' coffee.
** Heck, you don't even have to ask! They're so obsessed with building or improving new and crazy machines just to make them more complex, some even work in their [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040405 sleep]
* ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'': Vriska loves to brag about her many "irons in the fire", but she doesn't appear to care if any of these schemes actually ''conflict''; as long as she's got another pie to stick a finger in, she's as happy as a clam that's never heard of chowder.
** Her elaborate courtship of Tavros included abusing him physically and mentally, crippling him, taking advantage of his childhood fantasies, teaming up with him, mocking him, giving him a flying car, trying to force him to kill her, and {{spoiler|killing him when he fails}}, all in order to toughen him up and sparking either red or [[Foe Yay|black]] romantic feelings. Instead he just got confused and very frightened of her. She'd have had better results by ''just being nice to him'' - it worked on John.
* In ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' as a result of her time in {{spoiler|the forest}}, Antimony developed a case of this.
{{quote| '''Antimony:''' I suppose this calls for... an even '''more''' convoluted scheme!}}
 
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== Western Animation ==
* In the theatrical ''[[Recess: SchoolsSchool's Out]]'' film, the [[Mad Scientist]] character builds a tractor beam in order to move the moon. His evil plan goes something like this:
##Use a tractor beam to move the moon.
##This will change the seasons, making it winter all year long.
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** Ignoring the fact that the whole thing is just a really roundabout way of getting into the highest political office in the country, [[Insane Troll Logic|there are just so many things wrong with that plan that it wraps past funny and goes into tragic.]] The first step alone would have catastrophic consequences.
** TJ flat out tells the villain that removing summer won't remove summer vacation, but the [[Big Bad]] just replies, "I can try."
* ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]''' "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" (during a parody of ''[[The Prisoner (TV)|The Prisoner]]''):
{{quote| '''Number 2:''' I'll be blunt. Your web page has stumbled upon our secret plan.<br />
'''Homer:''' That's impossible. All my stories are bullplop. [[Gosh Dang It to Heck|Bullplop!]]<br />
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'''Bart''': By throwing me off a dam? Isn't that a little crude for a genius like you?<br />
'''Cecil''': You know, you're right. If anyone asks, I'll lie! }}
* In an episode of ''[[Underdog (Animationanimation)|Underdog]]'', Simon barSinister's plan to take over the city was thwarted because he couldn't reach a vital piece of equipment due to the [[Useful Notes/Thanksgiving Day|Thanksgiving Day]] Parade blocking the street. Fortunately, he has a time machine. How does he use it? Option A: Go back in time to that morning, cross the street before the parade starts. Option B: Go back in time one day, tell his troops the attack is postponed until Friday, when the parade won't be blocking the street. Option C: Go back in time one week, and move the device to the other side of the street, so the parade won't be an issue. What he comes up with is Option D: Go back ''several hundred years'' and sabotage the formation of Plymouth Plantation so that [[Useful Notes/Thanksgiving Day|Thanksgiving Day]] never happens, and therefore the [[Useful Notes/Thanksgiving Day|Thanksgiving Day]] Parade will not exist to keep him from crossing the street. He opted to try to alter centuries of history, possibly creating a [[Butterfly Effect]] that would cause the city he wanted to conquer to never exist in the first place, just to remove a temporary ''traffic obstacle''.
* Perennial [[Hanna-Barbera]] villain [[Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat|Dick Dastardly]] is the king of this trope. In his first appearance on [[Wacky Races]] he would always come up with elaborate plans to cheat his way to victory. Here's the kicker: he didn't need to do this at all. His car was ''several times faster than anyone else's.'' He could have won every race legitimately with ease, and in fact, each race begins with him surging to a huge lead. But he always stops in order to set up traps, which invariably end up backfiring and costing him the race. This pattern of behavior would carry on to all of his many other appearances: no matter who he's going up against, Dastardly's complexity addiction is his greatest enemy.
** Another fine example was when Dastardly was given his own spinoff series. It revolved around him concocting ridiculously complex plans and inventing insane flying machines, all ''to catch a pigeon.''
*** The character on which Dastardly is based, Professor Fate from ''[[The Great Race]]'', is almost certainly also where he gets this tendency; Fate spends the entire race cheating, much like Dastardly, and his reaction at the end of the movie (when the protagonist throws the titular Great Race in order to win over his love interest) probably matches how Dastardly would think, as well. Fate celebrates the victory for a moment, then lapses into a huge tantrum because, even though he wanted to win, he wanted it on his terms (which meant that he wanted to win by cheating like he was being paid for it). He even goes so far as to scream "YOU CHEATED!" in the hero's ''face'' during all this.
** Also [[The Perils Of Penolope Pitstop]] kept seeing the titular character getting captured and put into overly rediculous deathtraps. Granted the guy responsible wants to inherit her fortune and is probably trying to make it look like an accident (hence the reason he doesn't just shoot her), but some of them just get outright absurd and after putting her in whatever trap he just runs off rather than sticking around and making sure it works.
* A heroic example: In ''[[The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan (Animation)|The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan]]'', Tom Chan will often suggest needlessly elaborate plans such as deploying a series of mirrors to examine a statue (when Anne can just climb the tree and look through a pair of binoculars) or catapulting them over a wall (when the gate's open). Mostly [[Played for Laughs]].
* On ''[[Phineas and Ferb (Animation)|Phineas and Ferb]],'' [[Mad Scientist|Dr. Doofenshmirtz]] will regularly plot to do something needlessly complicated rather than something ''much'' simpler, like steal Big Ben rather than go to the store and buy a new watch. [[Better Than a Bare Bulb|Of course]], it's often [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]].
** Arguably, Phineas and Ferb are prone to this as well. For example, in "Picture This", Ferb has left his skateboard in England:
{{quote| '''Phineas:''' I know! We could create a highly intricate and sophisticated machine that will transport any object from anywhere on the globe to our backyard!<br />
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{{quote| '''Ferb:''' {{spoiler|If we hadn't been able to invent something soon, I was going to ''scream.}}''}}
* Most ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' villains succumb to this, and [[Once an Episode|every episode]] ends with either them or the members of Mystery Inc. giving detailed explanations of how they were pulling off what they were doing, and why.
** The best example of this is probably the ''[[Scooby -Doo! Mystery Incorporated (Animation)|Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated]]'' episode "Mystery Solvers Club State Finals": the villain (revealed to be '' {{spoiler|[[The Funky Phantom (Animation)|The Funky Phantom]]}}'', of all people), goes into ''excruciating'' detail about how he carried out his plot, which turns out to be an overly-complicated way of {{spoiler|getting rid of his team so he can stop being a sidekick}}. This ''could'' be justified by the fact that the whole episode is [[All Just a Dream|just a fever dream Scooby's having]], but still...
** Strike that -- the best example is from the following episode, where the [[Villain of the Week]]'s plan is even more complicated, and even more pointless. The Gang lampshades this.
** Note that the reason why is generally something along the lines of "scare everyone else away so I can do what I want in the area," often involving treasure. Simply buying them off would work just as well, and would not attract people with an interest in ghosts.
* Dr. Drakken from ''[[Kim Possible (Animation)|Kim Possible]]'' suffers from this. His sidekick, [[Only Sane Woman]] Shego, lampshades this repeatedly.
{{quote| '''Shego:''' OK, let's get this Operation Too-Complicated-To-Actually-Work started!}}
* ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]'' has this [[Genre Savvy|down to the]] [[Evil Brit|Gary Oldman accent]]:
{{quote| '''{{spoiler|Barry}}''': You're not in any position to be calling the shots Steven; I'm the one holding the gun.<br />
'''Steve''': Sure, [[Mundane Solution|you could kill me with your gun...]] but are you willing to try something much more elaborate and unnecessary? }}
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