r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Routine_Phase_8980 • 3d ago

Hated Tropes ( Annoying af trope ) When the good guys possess perfect defensive position/advantages that was completely ruined by someone's sheer stupidity, pettiness, or selfishness

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I understand that these scenes must happen in order for the plot to continue but they still make me angry till today whenever I think about them because of how easy it could've been avoided. I doesn't mean these scenes are necessarily bad written, just hella hard to watch.

The Jerusalem Wall / The Singing Crowd (World War Z): Israel literally anticipated the zombie apocalypse and built a flawless, massive wall that kept everyone 100% safe. It was the ultimate safe haven. But then people inside started celebrating and singing on a microphone so loudly that it triggered a zombie pyramid, they didn't even stop until the first zombies started coming through. They have less survival instinct than an amoeba.

Ephialtes (300): The Spartans had the perfect phalanx formation at the Hot Gates. They were slaughtering the Persian army with minimal casualties and could have held them off for so much longer. Then this guy gets his feelings hurt because he can't lift a shield, throws a tantrum, and tells Xerxes about the secret goat path.

Grandma Jong-gil (Train to Busan): The survivors fought through hell and literal waves of infected to secure a safe train car. Sure, the crowd inside was selfish for locking them out at first, but everyone was finally safe inside. Then this grandma, fueled by grief and spite over her sister, decides to open the door and let the infected flood the entire car, killing everyone.

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u/Hunterofshadows 3d ago

In fairness, they essentially never actually needed their superior weaponry and firepower and have never meaningfully fought in anything resembling actual warfare in their history and it’s arguably weird they have as much military tech as they even have in that sense.

On the other hand, any random hobo who’s been even so much as taught basic warfare strategy could have come up with a better defensive line even under the extremely limited time constraints and they really have no excuses

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u/Poku115 3d ago

"and it’s arguably weird they have as much military tech as they even have in that sense." Makes sense with their isolationism and "othering" everyone else

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u/JustAnotherCurio 3d ago

Except they are isolationist and no one even really knew Wakanda was this advanced. Everyone literally thought it was a quiet backwater third world country. They had no use for any significant weaponry because clearly they never fought an enemy on such a scale where the weaponry and technology was revealed

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u/Poku115 3d ago

Yes that was their first defense, pretend to be a backwater country so countries like USA think theres nothing of value to invade them from.

Which was proven the right choice in wakanda forever

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u/JustAnotherCurio 3d ago

But a country which clearly has no need of powerful military weapons would not develop them. Most military developments have come about as evolutions of tactics coming about because of new technology or opposing enemy tactics pushing the need for development.

Wakanda hasn’t fought a legitimate fair war in… how many centuries? And since they were isolationist, why would they care to develop high powered weaponry for wars they don’t fight?

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u/Darigaazrgb 3d ago

They are still aware of the outside world.

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u/Archonate_of_Archona 3d ago

Because they know outsiders would try to invade if they ever discovered the secret (which is always a possibility, the secret was well guarded but it was not a 100% guarantee)

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u/Poku115 3d ago

And they were right as the first thing the governments started doing post snap, was hunt vibranium

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u/StankoMicin 3d ago

Don't they have spies? They should be aware of the advances of their peers and how to counter them. They seem to think ancient military combat is peak

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u/Poku115 3d ago

They anticipated the need of massively superior weapons to not be colonized, they would never help another country but they expected them to be razed to the ground and eventually have the enemy at their door

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u/HereInTheMeantime 2d ago

Would they not still need a defense force? Its not like Wakanda was Japan, wherein they didn't let anyone in or out. Wakanda HAD spies in diff areas, shit, we even see this in the first movie with Killmonger's dad! They probably reasoned that with their surrounding states getting colonized by imperial forces, they'd need to keep up with the latest technologies, leading to the military forces we see in the comics/movies

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u/ReaperReader 3d ago

In which case, why would Wakanda have a military at all?

Like getting a large group of people to show up at one location, with consistent equipment, and then getting them moving in the same direction in formation, takes a fair bit of effort in and of itself. (Like the River and Jabari Tribe soldiers gets there on time, but the Water Tribe guys go to the wrong place and the Mining Tribe guys have the wrong date and by the time you've got that sorted out, half of the River and Jabari guys have started a football match and the rest have wandered off for sharma.)

If you're going to do all that, why not equip the guys with modern tech?

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u/topinanbour-rex 2d ago

They sit on the largest vibranium reserve, they have a need of powerful military weapons. They know at the second the rest of the world know about the vibranium, they will receive "freedom".

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u/Ajreil 2d ago

Also, they were fighting alien melee brutes that Wakanda could not have reasonably predicted.

Against human adversaries they would have kicked ass. Kimoyo Beads can effortlessly hack vehicles. They have phenomenal surveillance and infiltration abilities. Their city shields can easily shrug off anything short of a nuclear bomb.

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u/AFalconNamedBob 3d ago

I could buy that

If there weren't like 6 dudes in the fight with actual military training at the minimum being NCO level

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u/Mist_Rising 2d ago

Their isolationist stance allowing for high tech is arguably the strangest connection to begin with. Isolation, as least like wakanda, doesn't typically lead to higher technology abilities. Your economy isn't going to be significant because you lack trade, your knowledge base tends to suffer too because you can't access the world only yourself.

The movies handwaved both issues, the first is vibranium can do all things, and the second is Shura is kickass.

We accept both of those, yet we are shocked they can look out the "window" into the world and design a military.

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u/z1lard 2d ago

Maybe they were fighting each other, didn't they consist of several tribes?

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u/JustAnotherCurio 2d ago

Small scale tribe warfare with vibranium cannons? And it seems like they already had a duelling system to settle disputes and challenges of authority

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u/z1lard 2d ago

Maybe it's like a 5-way cold war situation

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u/JustAnotherCurio 2d ago

Doesn’t seem that way, what with the Black Panther coming mostly from a single tribe and lineage who claim to be overall rulers of the country. That’s not the sign of a cold war if one side holds the best resources and the seat of the country

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u/SGexpat 2d ago

I think it’s a “show” military that is more about flashy equipment and moves. Due to their isolation, they don’t have combat hardened troops and leadership.

Black Panther and other elite troops beating a few guys up, doesn’t teach strategy.

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u/Middle-Welder3931 3d ago

They had Cap. Cap reorganises that defensive line into modern tactical formations immediately.

That defensive line was just a plot device to let Thanos' army through.

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u/Hunterofshadows 3d ago

That’s a hell of a point