Trope Talk: Idiot Plots

Good writing advice I've heard before: if your character is urgently driving somewhere and you need them to not make it in time, don't have them stop for a burger, instead have them break the speed limit and get pulled over for it. Both are mistakes, but the latter is understandable and consistent with their motivation, while the former is just stupid.

“The problem with an idiot plot is not, as one might think, that the plot involves characters acting dumb. The problem is when it makes us question if the author is also dumb.” What a wonderful way to end and sum things up.

What's really sad/disturbing is how many real life disasters feel like an "idiot plot" in hindsight.

I used to get a lot more frustrated with idiot plots in stories. Then I started DMing in D&D. Forget about abilities and resources that would instantly solve this problem? Choose the absolute dumbest possible option available that causes everything to go sideways? Completely ignore or misinterpret the obvious hints thrown at them? Seen them all. And done some myself on the other side of the screen. It's helped me be sympathetic that people actually can and do act that way. Never underestimate your player's ingenuity or their stupidity.

One thing I love about Hadestown is that “it’s an old song, it’s an old tale, it’s a tragedy”, and yet you can still hear the gasp rip through the theater when he turns around.

When I saw Batman v. Superman, I resolved the fight immediately. Luthor said 'If you kill me...she dies. If you fly away...she dies.' Okay...how about if I grab YOU, fly you to Batman...the WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE... and say 'This creep has kidnapped my mom to force me to fight you and we have 58 minutes to find her.'

Believe it or not, Shrek of all films falls into this criteria. Most notably near the end where Shrek overhears Fiona talking about how no one would love a beast so hideous and ugly when she's actually referring to herself. Shrek then leaves after hearing half the conversation. He comes back later and confronts Fiona about what he heard. Another misunderstanding occurs, this time on Fiona's part. Shrek said he heard "Every word", making Fiona think he knows about her secret and is disgusted over her "true" self, when in fact, he believes she is disgusted by him. The genius comes from the fact that both these characters are majorly insecure about themselves, and it makes perfect sense why both would misunderstand the other. "Well, I thought, that wouldn't matter to you..." "Well... It does!" A Truly heartbreaking and well written scene from a fantastic film.

The secret to why idiot plots aren’t always a bad thing: Actual idiots exist, and sometimes do idiot thing. Just convince the audience the character is indeed one of these people

Best example ever: Every single episode of Flash where Barry somehow forgets he can move at the speed of light.

"Because why would anyone assume that the person they're talking to is actually that person's secret identical twin?" This was basically Stan Pines' logic in almost all of Gravity Falls imo

It never ceases to amaze me how many of these trope talks boil down to "this trope isn't bad, it's a useful writing device, but bad or clueless application by authors who should know better has given it a bad rap." Honestly, this whole series should be required material for creative writing classes. Lol.

Hamlet can be described as being so smart that he wraps around to being stupid.

Honestly, I'd say Frozen fits the "Tragedy Idiot Plot", save that they just BARELY manage to pull out a happy ending, and it works because they're all acting on things that are shown to be part of their overall characterization (and in several cases, things explicitly shown as something they need to grow beyond). Elsa's freakout is entirely understandable thanks to her parents genuinely wanting to help her but being idiots about it. Anna is desperately lonely, which is both why she falls for Hans and why she runs off after her sister completely unprepared despite the whole "Walking Fimbulwinter" thing. Duke Weaseltown (WESELTON!) is greedy, paranoid about how mysterious Arendelle is, and not that bright, so his idiotic actions make sense in context. Even Hans is driven by his desperation to actually make a name for himself, given the way his entire family treated him.

“A good old miscommunication that could be solved in ten seconds of punch-free communication” is now my favorite thing that anyone has ever said.

One of my favourite writers of romances made a point that she never writes a plot where the romantic problems could be solved by the two characters actually talking to each other. Makes you realise quite how many romances that doesn't apply to.

I remember hearing something about how if Othello and Hamlet swapped places, their stories would be resolved. Hamlet would see Iago's bullshit immediately because he is careful and clever. If Othello's dead father told him to kill his step dad, the play would be over in about 5 minutes. Idiot plots really do work when it's because a character is just being themselves in a situation where being themselves is probably the worst option

My favorite idiot plots are "the characters all share one braincell, and they either pass it along like a game of keep away or only a couple/one character use it"

"I have to fight him, for my honour!" "But he'll kill you" "I think I already mentioned my honour?" In other words, such plots can also be the consequence of different values, not just miscommunication.

Besides Shakespeare I would also like to point to Jane Austen as a master of the idiot plot. The whole set up of pride and prejudice is just that simple. Elizabeth hears Mr Darcy says some cruel things and she doesn’t mishears them they are as bad as they sound, but because of her prejudices she lets that one interaction form her entire idea of Mr Darcy which leaves her vulnerable to believing all of Wickhams lies simply because she judges him as better. Darcy on the other hand is too proud to admit he’s just socially awkward and not the best with words, he’s too proud to let himself openly love Elizabeth despite her embarrassing family and even after he understands all the lies Elizabeth has been told he’s still too proud to simply explain himself. Like yes the conflict could have been very easily solved if Darcy and Elizabeth sat down to have an honest conversation about their feelings early on, but then the characters wouldn’t have been Darcy and Elizabeth and the story wouldn’t have been as interesting.

I think a case could be made for the One Ring being an idiot ball-esque plot device done well. A huge part of its thing is that it corrupts people and makes them super irrational, so when Boromir - a guy who's consistently been shown to Care a Whole Lot about protecting people, especially those weaker than him - tries to take it from Frodo there is a layer of "nooo why would you do this, it's objectively a stupid choice and you're not stupid" but there's also the layer of "oh of course the guy who came north begging for help for his people because he's so damn tired of fighting an impossible foe alone would be the one who would desperately grasp for anything he thought might make them stronger" The Ring makes people act out of character because that's its character and I think that's neat Edit: to clarify, I do not think that the Ring is actually an idiot ball! I think that the effects it causes are similar to the idiot ball. Apologies for my vague wording 😅