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/patchyj 3d ago

Mate that's not even the worst bit!

WHY PUT TREBUCHETS ON THE FRONT LINE?

WHY SEND OFF THE DOTHRAKI INTO PITCH BLACK DARKNESS?

so goddamn stupid. Its like taking bullets out of the gun and throwing them at your enemy

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u/Retrospectus2 3d ago

the dothraki charge is even worse, when melisandra came out to set their weapons on fire everyone looked surprised to see her. meaning they didn't expect her to do that. meaning they planned to charge into the horde without weapons that could kill the undead

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u/Vilnius_Nastavnik 3d ago

GoT's whole thing was that it was supposed to be hard fantasy and bring more gritty realism to the table than classic fantasy stuff like LOTR. Initially it did a great job of giving us plausible medieval warfare, but Season 7 was so ass about it that it might as well be a different show.

You've got a famously defensible fortress packed with the hardest troops of both major continents, led by a council of supposedly the greatest military minds in the world and supported by one of the few magic users in existence. They've got a massive amount of elite light cavalry, not the best for a siege but they could absolutely fight dismounted behind the walls or be held in reserve once the enemy is committed. Nope, feed 'em directly into the meat grinder.

Not even the stupidest most inbred noble fop failson of a medieval general would've thought that was worthwhile, and if he did his advisors probably would've smothered him in his sleep.

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u/FlapJackSam 2d ago

And then somehow there’s a few thousand that survived for the march to Kings Landing? When clearly we saw them all die

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u/BonnaconCharioteer 2d ago

Ironically, from the very start, game of thrones was less realistic than lotr on military matters. The books, primarily.

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u/lordkrassus 2d ago

Heyheyhey, they just followed the advice of the Lord Dragons most trusted Advisor Weiramon. He knows how to handle the enemies. A fine cavalry charge will teach them. (This comment was sponsored by the wheel of time community.)

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u/Serious_Tradition269 3d ago

Just quickly sending massive part of your army to become easy soldiers for the opposing army.

And it doesn't even matter because they'll just magically be back in the next episode!

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u/2Sap2Loerex 2d ago

"Half are left."

I screamed "WHAT?!" at this when I finally watched the show with some friends and we got to this point. That shit became almost comical by the end with how dumb it was, seriously.

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u/enadiz_reccos 3d ago

Goddamn, I didn't even think about it like that

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u/sataigaribaldi 2d ago

Not exactly. They had arakh's made of dragon glass, so they weren't quite unequipped. Stupid tactic all the same.

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u/NotawoodpeckerOwner 3d ago

The dead don't even protect themselves, all they had to do was make a whole bunch of dragon glass arrows and speers and they'd more than likely win until the big dogs showed up.

5000 guys riding horses into the middle of 1 million dead dudes to then die and become more dead dudes was an interesting tactic for sure.

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u/RowAndRuction 3d ago

To be fair, the Dothraki army’s greatest strength was fighting foot soldiers on open plains with cavalry charges.

Their charge with blessed fire weapons was probably the most dangerous tool in the living army’s arsenal.

I’d say they should have waited for a flanking maneuver but the undead army was so large I don’t think it would have been meaningfully different than their initial charge. And you can’t make use of them inside the walls, they need the space of the plains to make use of their mobility.

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u/Additional_potential 3d ago

Them being expert archers was a big part of what made them fearsome. If you can fire a bow from horseback you can do it standing. They could have been given dragon glass arrows.

Edit: Or have them harass around the sides with mounted archery if their 'honor' wouldn't let them fight on foot.

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u/RowAndRuction 2d ago

That’s the thing, I don’t think the undead horde had “sides”. It was just that large.

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u/naamingebruik 3d ago

In the commentary, the producers/directors said it was for the cool factor, it just looked cool that's why they did it

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u/MoorAlAgo 3d ago

Was it in the same commentary where they "really wanted" that zombie polar bear?

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u/naamingebruik 2d ago

I think so yeah

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u/RowAndRuction 2d ago

Yeah but they’re idiots and should be ignored lol.

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u/MoorAlAgo 2d ago

I'm not disagreeing generally, but they shouldn't be ignored when the question is essentially "what were they thinking when they decided that for the scene?"

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u/NorysStorys 3d ago

Obsidian is better used for arrow tips than making axes or knives. The only culture on earth that used obsidian for weaponry in the last 500 years did so because they hadn’t figured out metallurgy to that extent yet.

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u/SenritsuJumpsuit 2d ago

In the modern military version of this battle has them surround the now alone undead king with said spears where a commander willing let's themselves be Impaled inorder to disarm the enemy

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u/spectatorade 2d ago

And that's the thing that is really stupid, why would you even send people into melee combat if you had literally any alternatives when you know that you are fighting an army of the Dead brought back to life. Like you think the night King is just going to let your dad rest in peace on the battlefield? Yeah dragon glass arrows from my high and far vantage point, and then keep your dragons hidden out of sight until the big guy shows up and then have them ambush with straight Dragonfire the whole damn time. Like yeah the night King might be able to spear one of them down but two of those ceaseless columns of fire are still going to hit him and his army.

Heck let's take it a step further and do dragon glass tipped barricade spikes, let them just impale themselves to death on row after row of spikes.

Edit: misspelled dead as dad, not changing it cause it's funny.

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u/yungScooter30 3d ago

Arya could've killed just Cersei, worn her mask, and commanded the entire continent to defend against the undead.

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u/Bob_Skywalker 2d ago

I’d like to think having a giant zombie tank by your side at all times programmed to be only loyal to you might make even a faceless man hesitate to try that.

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u/yungScooter30 2d ago

You may have a point lol. Okay, new plan. Bran wargs into Gregor Clegane, Arya kills Gregor, then wears his mask. She (as Gregor) kills Qyburn and Cercei, dons Cercei's mask, commands Westerosi and Golden Company forces to end The Great War, cedes Kings Landing to Denaerys and Jon after succeeding, then rides off into the sunset only to remove the mask and return as Arya with everyone but Bran being none the wiser.

TELL me that that's worse than what we got.

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u/Bob_Skywalker 2d ago

Well that covers it. New wrench, we have to use book logic. In the show they showed his face, but it's heavily implied in the book that Gregor Zombie is headless. Now you have to adapt your plan because he has no face to take. Go!

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u/yungScooter30 2d ago

Ah ah ah okay! Jaime dies protecting Brienne from the night horde and Brienne begrudgingly tells Arya to take his face so that they can use it in the future. The Night King raises the fallen, and a reanimated Rickon escapes from the crypt attacking above ground and eventually being spotted by Arya, who then subdues him and gets to say her goodbyes before re-killing him in tears. Dany and Jon are therefore the ones to kill the Night King together, fulfilling Aegon's Dream and prophecy and not wasting years of our lives.

The group travels South and Bran wargs into Cercei, dismissing Gregor and leading him to a final showdown with Sandor. Arya, as Jaime, meets in secret with Cercei and tells her everything that Brienne knew of Jaime's feelings while convincing her to give up before King's Landing is destroyed by dragon fire, giving Cercei an emotional conclusion before Arya removes her face and kills her. The Golden Company are without orders, and the city is taken with only enough violence to convince them to stand down, but not enough to surpass the intensity of the Great War.

Denaerys does not have a meltdown, Jon reveals his identity to Kings Landing but insists on co-ruling with Denaerys, Dorne becomes its own thing. Sansa stilll runs the North, Bran travels around the continent with Meera to all the Weirwood trees and helps restore the relationship between men and children of the forest, Arya still sails West.

And maybe for fun in a closing scene, Greyworm, sailing to Naath with some other unsullied, passes old Valyria, and his expression hardens as an unknown dragon's cry is heard in the distance. Since Cannibal is never stated to have died, this would be a fun unanswered question

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u/bigblue473 3d ago

“Where are the ditches?!” -Dr. Roel Konijnendijk

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u/Iron_Wolf123 3d ago

Why put the cavalry units in front of the infantry? Why not have them on the flanks?

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u/MoorAlAgo 3d ago

The trebuchet part was so funny to me also because some of them weren't even trebuchets; they were catapults.

At least with the trebuchets one can make the argument that they have range and why not throw shit to soften the enemy you can't see before charging in with cavalry (ignoring how stupid that is).

Catapults aren't known for their range; in fact, in one of the scenes they literally fire a catapult, then it immediately cuts to trebuchet projectiles, so I have to imagine that one catapult just fired at nothing.

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u/LukeSky011 2d ago

Oh man I can hear Mauler in this one.

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u/Swaibero 2d ago

That still isn’t the worst bit. Never forget that in the battle against a zombie army, led by a guy whose main power is raising the dead, they put the defenseless women and children (and Tyrion) in a goddamn crypt. No one thought to maybe burn those bodies real quick? Or put them in any other indoor location? Or maybe use these able-bodied people in any way to help the fight?