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Too Dumb to Live/Literature: Difference between revisions
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== Note: As a [[Death Trope]], [[Handling Spoilers|all spoilers on this page are unmarked]]. ==
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* In [['Salem's Lot]] by [[Stephen King]], Susan Norton, despite being warned by Ben Mears and Matt Burke that they should stay away from the Marsten House for now, goes there all on her own to see if there's really a vampire there. What's more, on the way she encounters twelve year old Mark Petrie who actually has warded off a vampire the previous night. Now, with proof and a new ally, does she suggest that the two of them go back to town and get reinforcements to return in force? No, she and Mark go up to the house all on their own. What do you think happens?
* In the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'' novels this pretty much sums up the New Republic/Galactic Federation of Free Alliances. The Old Republic lasted "a thousand generations". The New Republic lasted less than one, largely because it was so mired in politics that it was wholly unable to adequately respond to an extragalactic invasion. Thanks to the tireless efforts of our [[Rebel Leader|passionately individualistic heroes]] the invaders are eventually stopped and the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances is formed. During it's brief existence it has allowed a [[Galactic Conqueror|Sith Lord]] to exploit a legal technicality to seize power, the second time this had occurred in less than a century. Once our heroes sort that out, the GFFA then arbitrarily appoints a [[General Failure|former enemy who once tried, unsuccessfully, to destroy their capital planet]] as their new Chief of State for no apparent reason other than that a real election would be too much trouble and there were seemingly no qualified candidates amongst the ranks of their own government. Needless to say, more trouble quickly ensues. All of this keeps the Jedi in a role of [[La Résistance|constantly having to oppose their own government]] and likewise routinely being out of favor with said government, who are deeply offended by the Jedi's ceaseless attempts to stop their lemming-like drive towards self-destruction.
* Carpathia's plan in Left Behind is to follow every step of the divine plan that leads to his inevitable defeat, as opposing to try and Screw Destiny by, for example, ruling fairly and trying to create a better world, or just nuking the whole planet to spite Him. Well okay, he did intend to deviate from the plan at the last possible minute by waiting until Jesus actually returned and then shooting him. This works about as well as you'd expect.
* The ''[[Dune]]'' prequels: the machine empire is many times bigger than the League of Nobles, with hundreds of planets, and robots working around the clock on every one of them. They could easily create enough nuclear missiles to take out the dozen or so Noble planets in one swift strike. They don't. We learn that they can't reach the planets because they are surrounded by an atmospheric shield that fries robot brains; but why not simply firing nukes from above the atmosphere, straight down? Especially since every planet in the Duneverse is a [[Planetville]].
* Peter in ''The Boy Who Reversed Himself''. He is sacrificed to a man-eating boar (he lives anyway) because Laura and Omar don't consider him worth saving. Besides, it was Peter that got them stuck in the 4th Dimension in the first place due to his stupidity.
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* ''[[Wolf Breed]]'' gives us Darien, a man who must have been born under a stupid sign. First off, he is a werewolf and grew up in a town made up entirely of werewolves. His parents and everybody in the town tell him not to let anyone outside the village know he is a werewolf or run around in wolf form in broad daylight because there is a [[Church Militant]] [[Badass Army]] out there that has pledged to destroy werewolves. Guess what Darien does, and then after the [[Doomed Hometown|predictable results]], refuses to accept blame for his actions and projects his self-loathing onto humanity. [[Complete Monster|So he starts killing innocent people]] to lure a unit of said army into his trap. That's right, he picks a fight with a group of about forty elite soldiers specifically trained and armed to kill his kind and have plenty of experience doing so and then Darien has the gall to act surprised when they nearly kill him. Then he tries to convince a female werewolf, who has been raised by ordinary humans, that he lusts after that [[Humans Are Bastards]] and he does so by framing her for murder! And he does so in such a way that the girl, the soldiers and just about every other major character knows he is really responsible in about two minutes after the killing takes place!
* For all of the times that R.A. Salvatore has [[Our Elves Are Better|made drow look vastly superior to humans]], the drow invaders do something immensely stupid in ''[[Legacy of the Drow Series|Siege Of Darkness]]''. The drow forces are split into two groups: one attacking Mithral Hall from underground, and the other attacking from the surface. During the planning stages, everybody seemingly forgot that drow eyes ''cannot tolerate sunlight'' unless they've become used to it. Or perhaps none of them thought that the battle would last the entire night and that they would still be fighting the good guys when the sun came up. In any case, when the dawn comes, the drow on the surface are blinded and pretty well screwed.
** The drow expected the sun to come up and even trained looking at light to be prepared for it. They just greatly overestimated their tolerance for sunlight, as it was the first time they actually saw it.
* You don't need to know the lore behind [[Hellraiser|Lemarchand's Configurations]] to realize that a small, ornate box sitting ''[[Gorn|in the middle of a blast zone of blood, flesh and entrails]]'' is a ''bad sign.'' So what does one of the protagonists of the short story ''A Little Piece of Hell'' do? March right across the carnage to the box and decide he wants to figure out how to open it.
* The father in the 1998 Newbery Medal winner ''Out Of The Dust'' instigates the main [[Death by Newbery Medal|plot]] of the book by leaving a pail of kerosene by the stove. A pile of ''highly combustible fuel that has a flashpoint of roughly 100-150 degrees Fahrenheit and that gives off toxic fumes''. Not to mention that, since it's oil, it's hard to extinguish with water. ''[[Sarcasm Mode|Really great]]'' [[Sarcasm Mode|idea to have a bucket of this stuff around a food preparation area]].
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