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

[u/Routine_Phase_8980]

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.

[u/Vilnius_Nastavnik]

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.

[u/FlapJackSam → u/Vilnius_Nastavnik]

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

[u/BonnaconCharioteer → u/Vilnius_Nastavnik]

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

[u/lordkrassus → u/Vilnius_Nastavnik]

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.)