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Took a Level In Dumbass: Difference between revisions
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* ''[[Code Geass]]'': Ohgi, after falling for Villetta. It's so bad that thanks partly to him, {{spoiler|Lelouch finishes crossing the [[Despair Event Horizon]]}}, which causes {{spoiler|Lelouch}} to implement the {{spoiler|[[Thanatos Gambit|Zero Requiem]]}}.
* ''[[Kämpfer]]'': Natsuru but only in the anime. In the manga and light novels [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|however...]]
* ''[[Ranma ½]]'': Genma. At the beginning of the series, he's lazy, doesn't think things through, and isn't the brightest bulb on the circuit, but is for the most part a competent martial artist who, despite some (admittedly quite serious) blunders, has trained his son to be an incredibly skilled martial artist. As the manga goes on, he becomes increasingly stupid and incompetent, with only one bright spot during the Ryu arc.
* ''[[Death Note]]'':
** Light Yagami. He goes from erasing his own memory, trusting in the brilliance of his planning to ensure L's death while cementing his own complete innocence... to hiding the Death Note in storage and ''really hoping no one finds it while he's not looking''.<br /><br />The whole Mello and Near arc has Light [[Nerf|nerfed]] down hard, making great mistakes apparently to balance the odds of the two kids-nemesis. He loses the note, he loses Sayu, he loses his father... and one of his "best" responses is to confirm to Near he's Kira by ''sending a [[Dying Like Animals|mass of stupid people]] at the exact location (and '''only there''') of Near's anti-Kira organisation with the '''great''' expectations that they'll lynch someone of L's level''. The only vague explanation would be that years as Kami without a [[Worthy Opponent]] dulled his senses.
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== Film ==
* ''[[Idiocracy]]'': This trope happening to the entire human race is basically the plot.
* ''[[The Neverending Story (film)|The Neverending Story]] III'': Falkor, who is supposed to be a very ''smart'' character. He is a smart character in the first film and still somewhat smart in the second. In the third, however, he becomes a downright moron.
** Not to mention the Rock Biter...
* ''[[The Mask (film)|The Mask]]'' has both a film-wise and adaptation wise example for Lt. Kellaway's partner, Det. Doyle. In his initial scene at the bank, Doyle seems to be quite intelligent. By the time we see him at the park, he's suddenly a ditz and by the film's end he's a certified idiot. [[The Mask (animation)|The cartoon]] made him even dumber.
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* ''[[Wheel of Time]]'': In the first four books of the series Elaida is presented as a cunning member of the Red Ajah who is able to get Suian removed from power and still her. As soon as she gain powers her I.Q drops considerably, she pisses everyone in the tower off, she makes disastrous decisions that causes Aes Sedai to be captured, and she can't even decide that the Black Ajah exists or not even when it should be obvious after several sisters were murdered and Ter'angreal were stolen. The only possible explanation is she was elevated beyond her abilities (not surprising given she was the pawn of several Black Ajah in getting raised) and cracked after her first few screw ups.
** Actually, there's another explanation: she was briefly visited by Padan Fain, whose powers include the ability to corrupt people and drive them insane. In one of Fain's points of view, he mentions that he "brushed [her] with what he carried from Aridhol." It's not exactly confirmed, but it is implied.
*** [[Word of God]] confirms it. Fain wasn't around Elaida long enough to substantially change her personality, but his presence brought out the worst aspects that were already there and certainly accelerated her deterioration.
** Alviarin was a member of the Black Ajah and Elaida's Keeper of the Chronicles. She had been bullying Elaida into obeying her orders, even using Compulsion on her to have her obey. Most of Elaida's efforts since being raised are to undermine Alviarin's influence on her, and it is known that Compulsion causes mental instability if it is used multiple times on one person. Both these factors, as well as Fain's ability to corrupt, would swiftly give her the dumbass experience required to level up from cunning to totally incompetent.
** Also, by the last several books things aren't going Elaida's way at all, and she's starting to crack under the strain. A [[Villainous Breakdown]] may not cause you to ''lose'' IQ points, but it'll certainly have a negative impact on your being able to use them.
* Cersei in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', although YMMV. In book 1 she successfully engineers her husband's death and beats out Ned Stark in the power struggle that follows, and while she's ultimately bested by the Imp in book 2, she's not a pushover. In book 4, though, she surrounds herself with morons and alienates everybody useful as if she's doing it on purpose - Littlefinger aptly describes her as "stumbl[ing] from one idiocy to the next." One interpretation is that she's gotten stupid and arrogant from her success, which matches this trope. But it's also possible that she's no dumber than before, and has simply been promoted to the level of her incompetence, Peter Principle-style. The Seven Kingdoms are not an easy realm to run.
** It helps that everyone capable of overriding her bad decisions is dead or has left King's Landing by the fourth book.
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** Inverted with Dwight who started the series as a gullible man with almost no common sense and then became more and more skilled and successful as time went on. By seasons six and especially seven he seems smarter than any of the other characters.
** Kevin Malone. He was never the brightest bulb at Dunder Mifflin, but he showed signs during the first few seasons of just being a little dopey. A savant at the worst. By Season 5, he had lost about 25-50 IQ points. As of Season 8, he is pretty much mentally retarded.
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''
** Peter Petrelli [[Idiot Hero|after he learns how to use the powers he absorbs.]]
** In fact, ''[[Idiot Ball|everyone]]'' on ''Heroes'' gets this, with nominal good guys Mohinder, Peter and especially Hiro getting the worst of it.
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== Webcomics ==
* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' Sam "Da Man" Sein's intelligence has been plummeting ever since he became a vampire.
* ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'':
** Bikke the pirate was actually fairly ruthless and cunning when he first appeared (well, compared to Garland and the heroes, anyway). At this point, his intelligence is viewed as on par with [[The Ditz|Fighter's]]. In fact, he's probably worse since he's not even literate.
** D'rizzl actually ''inverted'' this trope, by taking levels in Smartass. Complete with a 50-point IQ hike.
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== Web Original ==
* Caboose from ''[[Red vs. Blue]]''. This was explained in-universe as the result of the trauma of losing his girlfriend ([[Cargo Ship|Sheila the tank]]) having his mind controlled by [[AI Is a Crapshoot|O'Mally]] and not being too bright to start with.
** Oddly enough, starting from ''Recreation'', Caboose actually seemed to ''regain'' some of his intelligence, upgrading from a complete idiot to merely [[The Ditz]]. This could be explained by the time Delta spent in Caboose's mind.
* ''[[Homestar Runner]]'': Homestar himself. Which makes his [[Smart Ball|random moments of intelligence]] all the more hilarious. He once recited Coulomb's Law when asked "What is 2 plus 2?" (when Strong Sad reiterates the question, Homestar naturally gets it wrong), and actually outsmarted Strong Bad by getting him to say something stupid.
* The reviewers of [[That Guy With The Glasses]], whose characters are often not the smartest or most stable people anyhow, all seem to take stupid pills for the annual [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]] anniversary films and forget about the intelligence, resources or super-powers they've displayed in their own series. This is more or less justified by being a kind of [[Recursive Canon]], where the characters have made their videos instead of living them, but are still those characters instead of the people who actually play them.
** Happened to both [[The Nostalgia Critic]] and [[The Nostalgia Chick]]. The Critic used to be of average intelligence before morphing into a ditz with almost no common sense but can very insightful when he wants, and the Chick used to be an [[Insufferable Genius]] before becoming a [[Know-Nothing Know-It-All]] who is oblivious to most things going on around her. [[Tropes Are Not Bad]] of course, their characters seen as much funnier now.
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** Cosmo most definitely. His first appearance was of a suave, gentlemanly persona in the first episodes, who made sarcastic comments and wisecracks. Now he's a screeching, literally brainless fairy who would have already killed Timmy if not for his wife's constant surveillance.
* ''[[Space Ghost Coast to Coast]]'': Done with several characters.
* ''[[King of the Hill]]''
** All of Hank Hill's friends seem to slowly lose their precious remaining IQ points over the course of the series -- resulting in dumber and more outrageous schemes that Hank must eventually fix.
** Luanne and Peggy also. Peggy has never been the [[Closer to Earth]] person between her and Hank, but she used to be at least a competent Spanish teacher -- now she's shown to have a tenuous grasp at best on the Spanish language, though it does lead to some [[Cringe Comedy|admittedly hilarious moments]]. Luanne has had a similar path of regression: after an ''angel'' tells her to go to college, she marries a [[Creator's Pet]]. This may have had something to do with KOTH being replaced by [[The Cleveland Show]].
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* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'': Fuzzy Lumpkins took this between the pilot and the series proper: in the pilot he was a reasonably calm [[Buffy-Speak|furry... thing]] with enough intelligence to build a gun that turns objects into meat; in the series he's a trigger happy hillbilly stereotype whose idea of a weapon is a rock (compared to, say, the ray guns of Mojo Jojo and Princess). Consider his line in "Fuzzy Logic" while chasing a squirrel from his home:
{{quote|'''Fuzzy:''' Come back here an' git off mah proppity!!}}
* Daffy Duck for ''[[The Looney Tunes Show]]''. In the original shorts he was fairly intelligent and clever, but occasionally gullible and was often defeated due to his greed and selfishness. Here, he's a lazy idiot who can't do anything right and fails to answer even the simplest trivia questions correctly.
* Penfold on ''[[Danger Mouse]]'' was the token dumbass, but as the series wound down to its final two seasons, Colonel K was afflicted by a case of the dumbasses which could be chalked up to early senility.
* The ''[[Battletoads (animation)|Battletoads]]'' cartoon turned the three protagonists into brain-dead teenage idiots. It even introduces Morgan "Zitz" Ziegler, a [[Genius Bruiser]] in the game canon, by having him cause a computer to explode just by trying to type something into it.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Character Derailment]]▼
[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:Took a Level In Dumbass]]
▲[[Category:Character Derailment Tropes]]
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