What an Idiot!/Anime and Manga/Gundam

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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  • After War Gundam X brings up Garrod Ran being hit on from the get go by Ms. Fanservice Ennil El, who obviously wants him. Sure, she was also engaging him in a business deal, but a blind man could tell she wanted to nail the guy.
    You'd expect: Sure, he had some reason to be paranoid about her stealing the GX-9900 G-Controller after they got laid, but considering how Crazy Prepared he usually is, he could've planned ahead, got his rocks off, and both parties could've walked away somewhat better than they did.
    Instead: He holds a gun on her, which pisses her off for most of the series, and was retroactively responsible for a LOT of things he could have avoided.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam AGE gives us the Veigan who have just found out that a teenage girl named Yurin L'Ciel is an X-Rounder - alias the AGE version of a Newtype. They REALLY want that person as an ally, specially considering that the other X-Rounder they have handy is an unstable Enfante Terrible, Desil Galette.
    You'd expect: That they go to Yurin's home, forcibly recruit her, train her as a pilot and in the use of her abilities and then make her a top pilot. (And maybe get her Brainwashed and Crazy, if needed.) It sorta worked in 00 with Louise, after all.
    Instead: The Veigan catch a hold of the girl... and then they merely strap her to a cockpit and use her as a living amplifier for the psychopathic Desil's own powers. Predictably, they lose a potentially very strong Dark Magical Girl of sorts when she gets killed in battle -- by Desil, of all people.
    • The other part of the plan is just as stupid. Yurin is a very peaceful and sweet person who lives more or less in peace with her adopted father and has a crush on a certain boy named Flit Asuno aka The Hero of the story. It doesn't look like recruiting her willingly will be easy...
      You'd expect: That they terrify her into submission via shooting or capturing her father or telling her that, if she doesn't join in, they'll endanger the colony. Or just tell her that they'll kill her if she doesn't collaborate. Or, as said before, having her Brainwashed and Crazy wouldn't be out of the question.
      Instead: Desil just goes to Yurin and tells her "Come with us, or you'll never see Flit again". And it works. Not only the threat doesn't seem to be half as convincing or tragic as the alternatives mentioned, but it makes poor Yurin look like a total idiot too. And as seen above, it works as well as expected..
    • When Asemu was about to steal the Vagan X-rounder helmet, Dique appeared.
      You'd expect: That he would make sure Asemu left first and locked the door behind him.
      Instead: He puts it back to the glass case and.... leaves Asemu in the room. Cue sound of something breaking.
    • As a child, Arabel Zoi sees Grodek Ainoa gun down his father. Grodek tells him that doing so was his only purpose in a shattered life, and that Arabel is destined to follow the same path.
      You'd expect: That Arabel would not accept the life philosophy handed to him by a stranger who murdered his dad and do something else, if only to spite Grodek.
      Instead: He devotes his life to getting revenge on Grodek and ends up as an Unwitting Pawn to the Federation in the process. Right after knifing Grodek in the kidneys, he himself is shot by Federation agents.
  • Mobile Fighter G Gundam has a lot of examples courtesy of Domon Kasshu, and here's one of the more Egregious ones: Schwarz Bruder has been teaching Domon how to unlock the true potential of his Super Mode by achieving a serene state of mind, rather than the Unstoppable Rage that leads Domon to accidentally activate it. Master Asia arrives before Domon's training is complete and goads Domon mercilessly to get mad and use his Super Mode to fight.
    You'd expect: Domon to listen to Schwarz and not rise to Master Asia's bait. Master Asia is very definitely Domon's enemy and every action he's taken since revealing his Face Heel Turn has been against Domon. If he's telling Domon "Get mad! Get mad! Get so mad it drives you mad!" while Schwarz is desperately pointing out exactly what Master Asia is doing and that Domon needs to keep his cool, Domon really should listen to the latter.
    Instead: Domon gets mad and activates his supermode.
    Result: Master Asia completely curbstomps Domon, forcing Schwarz to go Big Damn Heroes and incur serious injury.
    • Another shiner from Domon. After the tag team match with Argo, Graham, and Allenby ends in disaster, medivac crews are called in. Domon tells Rain to stay with Allenby, but the EMTs brush her aside and take off without her, in full sight of everyone present. When they visit the hospital later, Allenby has vanished.
      You'd expect: That Domon would ask Rain to search for her and enlist the help of the Shuffle Alliance. Just that. That's all you have to do.
      Instead: He flips his lid and blames the entire thing on Rain, bawling her out in the middle of the hospital and saying she's worthless as a doctor and a crewmate. Even though, as mentioned, he saw everything as well.
      • Not surprisingly, Rain feels horrible after this and, having been told that she not worthy of being on Domon's crew, resigns from his crew. Unfortunately, the next match is against Schwarz Bruder, who nobody has beaten.
        You'd expect: That Domon would realize what a jerk he was and go apologize to Rain.
        Instead: He's utterly dumbfounded that she would leave the crew and treats it as a huge betrayal (even before she turns up in a German flag mask) and sulks like a five-year-old, refusing to work with Rain's replacement. This results in a key flaw in God Gundam going undiagnosed until the middle of the match, when it's too late to do anything. Luckily, Schwarz set up a Batman Gambit to get Domon to realize what a moron he was being and Rain is able to fix the Gundam, but it still ends with Schwarz nearly dead. Again.
  • Gundam Wing Endless Waltz: It's just after the boys had defeated both Oz and White Fang and everything seems peaceful for now..
    You'd Expect: They'd put the Gundams away somewhere safe just in case they're ever needed again.
    Instead: Four out of the five load their Gundams in a rocket and launch it towards the sun. Meanwhile, a new group of bad guys pops up, takes Relena hostage, and starts wrecking havoc. On top of that, the one Gundam pilot who didn't go along with the hair-brained idea to launch them into the sun, JOINS THE FRAKING BAD GUYS!
    • Even better is the fact that after realizing that even if they defeat all the enemies they know, there may be more enemies hidden and they may need the Gundams to fight again...
      You'd Expect: They would have learned from the lesson they just finished recieving and put the Gundams away somewhere safe just in case they're ever needed again like they JUST WERE.
      Instead: They go through with their initial plan and destroy all their Gundams...
  • In Gundam 00, the Trinity siblings have been indiscriminately killing civilians in their attacks and even worse, Nena Trinity bombed a wedding party twice just for the lulz. People think that this was done by Celestial Being.
    You'd Expect: Some kind of statement by Celestial Being that while they are essentially terrorists trying to end war by bombing the hell out of the world's armies, they aren't that crazy, and for them to put a bounty on the Trinity siblings.
    Instead: Although Celestial Being does try to attack the Trinitys, they make no such statement leading to the nations of the world uniting against them. They reason that this might have been the ultimate plan of their founder, and so while slightly troubled, think that this is a valid way of getting world peace.
    • Patrick Colasour. 'Nuff said. Patrick is this trope incarnate. Despite having fought the Gundams about 10 times by the end of season 2 and survived blowing up, getting left behind in a desert with pure uranium under the sand and blowing up in space, he still hasn't learnt anything by the time the ELS attack in the movie.
      You'd Expect: Patrick stays in formation with the rest of the GN-X IV's and carefully destroys the approaching ELS:
      Instead: Patrick breaks formation as the first pilot and charges at the ELS, shouting "THIS IS FOR MY COLONEL!". This ends with him charging right into an ELS, thus getting his GN-X IV assimilated, but not before Gundam Zabanya rips Patrick out of his cockpit and leaves him drifting around in a pilot suit in the middle of the battlefield.
      • As expected of Patrick, whenever he talks to his wife, Kati Mannequin, he keeps saying "Colonel". Every time he says this in season 2 and the movie, Kati corrects him.
      • In the Movie, when Kati is looking at some intel on the ELS late at night, Patrick joins her. She eventually says she has no idea what the ELS are, and Patrick suggests they could be "Evil Space Aliens". Kati responds kiddingly by saying "You idiot. With you, even serious things sound stupid!"
      • Already a bit after half-way through season 2, when he is piloting the plane with Kati onboard.

Patrick: Why can't I get to pilot a Mobile Suit?
Kati: They say you're immortal, right? I want to make use of that.
Patrick: ALRIGHT!

      • In season 1, when Patrick arrives a bit too late and gets slapped by his new superior, Kati, for being late. He immediately falls in love with her, despite what one might expect.