History Main / GeneralFailure

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAge'' has [[InformedAttribute Zeheart Galette]], a CharClone who is being stuck in the setting where the KidHero is less cynical and failure-prone. The guy complains a lot about his upgrades, botches a lot of missions against Asemu, becomes benched by the third season and ultimately ends up having very unstable mentality when he's put into a charge. One of his last deeds involves killing a major part of ''his own army'' in an attempt to take out one ship ([[SenselessSacrifice where no enemy dies from the result]]). Nobody watching the show is convinced that his deed is sympathetic and necessary like the show tries to imply.

* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' has only one soldier under his command -- Zim himself -- but his plans and general behavior are bang on target with this trope. Examples include:

* ''WesternAnimation/ExoSquad'' has Captain Marcus. All of his tactics mostly involve attacking right away with no thought of any battleplans whatsoever. Most of which end in spectacular failure. Also his complete disregard for the use of Exo-Frames in any form. This is especially telling considering the show is about a squad of E-frame pilots.

Most of the time the leader is also a BadBoss, which can lead to WeHaveReserves and possibly MookDepletion. One wonders sometimes if the good guys are [[BetterTheDevilYouKnow secretly making sure]] the doofus on top stays there. General Failure is essentially the personification of FailureIsTheOnlyOption, and is the eventual destination of severe VillainDecay. He often bears similarities to TheNeidermeyer, but on a much higher scale. Compare ArmchairMilitary, MilesGloriosus, ModernMajorGeneral. PointyHairedBoss is a similar non-military trope.

->''"Only he could have permitted the First Afghan War and let it develop to such a ruinous defeat. It was not easy: he started with a good army, a secure position, some excellent officers, a disorganized enemy, and repeated opportunities to save the situation. But Elphy, with the touch of true genius, swept aside these obstacles with unerring precision, [[EpicFail and out of order wrought complete chaos]]. We shall not, with luck, look upon his like again."''

->''"Only he could have permitted the First Afghan War and let it develop to such a ruinous defeat. It was not easy: he started with a good army, a secure position, some excellent officers, a disorganized enemy, and repeated opportunities to save the situation. But Elphy, with the touch of true genius, swept aside these obstacles with unerring precision, and out of order wrought complete chaos. We shall not, with luck, look upon his like again."''

They are utterly ruthless, unfettered, and fanatically dedicated to the destruction of their enemies. Whether fighting for good or evil they have no qualms with employing the cruelest, foulest, most abominable strategems and minions--using ''every'' means both fair and foul in the pursuit of their goals. Their limitless ambition and cunning make them [[TheStrategist the very epitome of martial brilliance]]...

General Failure may have started out as a competent commander in a position of less importance, and his success led to him being promoted beyond his capabilities. If this is the case, then it's a villainous example of ThePeterPrinciple. If he started out as an incompetent mook or private, you can expect his rise to be an improbable series of KickedUpstairs, UriahGambit and PromotedToScapegoat that never deliver on the bad ending or being the only living replacement left when his superiors keep dying.

This trope does not happen too much in RealLife. Really incompetent officers usually never even graduate from the military academy: incompetent officers mostly don't tend to get promoted past Captain (Lieutenant in the Navy) level. Most real-life officers appearing as General Failures are simply unlucky ones (and conversely many military "geniuses" just got lucky and afterwards announced IMeantToDoThat).

Granted, in the mid-19th Century and prior, there was (more room for) nepotism, and military ranks and jobs had to be bought and were only available to people of the right class/social standing. But even then there were limits to how much incompetence a military establishment would tolerate before either you got demoted, or some of the people dying under your command saw to it [[UnfriendlyFire you got hit by a stray bullet]], or you and your remaining troops were captured by a foe with more competent leaders.

** Thanquol, one of the Grey Seers of the [[RatMen Skaven]]. He's such a disaster as a leader that when he was captured by a Slann, said Slann looked into the future, saw how much damage he was going to do to his ''own'' side, and ''sent him home''. To put that in perspective, Lizardmen as a whole (and Slann in particular) absolutely ''despise'' Skaven, but Thanquol is so ''abysmal'' that leaving him alive would do far more damage to the Skaven than killing him on the spot. The novel ''[[Literature/GotrekAndFelix Skavenslayer]]'', his first outing as a major antagonist, featured him repeatedly tipping off the main characters to major parts of ''his own plan'' in the hope of [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder killing off any of his allies who he considered a threat]] and then being surprised when this caused problems for him down the line.

** Indrick Boreale from the ''Soulstorm'' expansion. It's hinted at in the manual that he's actually a very, VERY skilled commander... At the level of a tactical squad or three, maybe even a small battle force. When put in charge of the taking of a planet with seven different known enemy armies (two of which are members of the Imperium itself) and an eighth they presumably don't even know is around, ThePeterPrinciple rears its head and his tactics boil down to AttackAttackAttack. This works out extremely well when running the Space Marine campaign, but not so much in any other; his concept of "defense" is to use the Steel Rain deployment, namely keeping everyone in his army within the orbital ships and [[ItsRainingMen using drop pods to deploy directly into combat]]. Again, fantastic for offensive missions, but suicide when on the defensive, especially when he never deploys more than a few men or a vehicle or two at a time instead of [[CurbStompBattle dropping the entire Chapter on the enemy's heads at the start]]. He finally resorts to [[TakingYouWithMe ordering an orbital bombardment in the middle of his own base]] because you've broken through the miserably thin static defenses.

** Later on in the first game, you also challenge the Yellow Comet [=CO=] Kanbei, who can be even worse, blustering forward hopped up on his own confidence. One mission is even named 'Kanbei's Error?' where he barely listens to his much more intelligent daughter's advice on capturing bases to produce units and ends up starting with a completely useless base stuck on an island with no ports or beaches. Similar to Olaf above, he becomes much more competent by the second game when you play as him. While one mission still involves him charging forward into an ambush to stop the enemy from capturing some cities of little strategic value, he admits he knows it's an ambush, but that he cannot abandon his people, no matter how efficient it may be to ignore them.
** With Olaf and Kanbei smartening up by the second game, the new General Failure becomes the Black Hole [=CO=] Flak, who loudly announces his tactics (often by shouting them across the battlefield) and has little in those tactics besides ZergRush.

* Sir Daniel Fortesque of ''VideoGame/{{Medievil}}''. A knight who gained a prominent position in the royal court of Gallowmere by lying about grand feats of valour he never actually performed, and ended up leading the kingdom's army when the evil necromancer Zarok arose to ravage the land. He was the first casualty of the entire battle, killed ignominiously via arrow-induced EyeScream, and his second-in-command, a mere boy, had to take over and win the battle for him. The King cooked up a story about how he died performing a noble HeroicSacrifice and hastily buried him to try and save face. A century later Zarok rises again and Dan, [[DemBones sans his flesh]], has to bring him down and this time earn his place as a great hero.

*** The aforementioned trap, if successful, would have won the war for Robb Stark then and there; Robb knew that Stannis had to attack the capital at some point and with the Tyrells apparently neutral then Tywin's army was the only force nearby that could stop him. Robb's strategy was to attack Tywin's base of power in the Westerlands and force him to follow Robb; the objective was keep Tywin pinned in the Westerlands and too far away to reinforce King's Landing, and for a time ''Tywin was falling for it.'' The only reason Tywin wasn't lured far enough away in time was that Edmure exceeded his orders and fortified the fords leading into the west instead of offering token resistance like he was supposed to; the delay allowed messengers to reach Tywin and tell him of the new developments to the south. Ultimately, Tywin won the war not because he was a better general or politician but due to a combination of factors completely outside his control.

** The aforementioned trap, if successful, would have won the war for Robb Stark then and there; Robb knew that Stannis had to attack the capital at some point and with the Tyrells apparently neutral then Tywin's army was the only force nearby that could stop him. Robb's strategy was to attack Tywin's base of power in the Westerlands and force him to follow Robb; the objective was keep Tywin pinned in the Westerlands and too far away to reinforce King's Landing, and for a time ''Tywin was falling for it.'' The only reason Tywin wasn't lured far enough away in time was that Edmure exceeded his orders and fortified the fords leading into the west instead of offering token resistance like he was supposed to; the delay allowed messengers to reach Tywin and tell him of the new developments to the south. Ultimately, Tywin won the war not because he was a better general or politician but due to a combination of factors completely outside his control.

** Serpentor, in the cartoons, is noted to be even worse at this. He can snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. To date, he has launched an armed invasion of Washington DC, crowning himself the king of a "1000 year reign" but makes absolutely zero preparations to hold on to the advantage he gained by the element of surprise and is deposed ''in less than an hour'' because he never dreamed the "gift-giving" dignitaries would carry firearms in their briefcases, having to be rescued by Cobra Commander. He leads an armed attack on the Joes' base when the command structure had been screwed over by his lieutenants but is quickly handed his backside when the Joes manage to reassert the proper chain of command. He also never has any exit strategies in place for when things start going south, often refusing to retreat until massive losses force him to do so. In fact, Cobra has to seek refuge in Cobra-La during ''WesternAnimatiopn/GIJoeTheMovie'', because Serpentor had led one crushing defeat after another until Cobra had nothing left.

** Serpentor, in the cartoons, is noted to be even worse at this. He can snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. To date, he has launched an armed invasion of Washington DC, crowning himself the king of a "1000 year reign" but makes absolutely zero preparations to hold on to the advantage he gained by the element of surprise and is deposed ''in less than an hour'' because he never dreamed the "gift-giving" dignitaries would carry firearms in their briefcases, having to be rescued by Cobra Commander. He leads an armed attack on Joe Island when the command structure had been screwed over by his lieutenants but is quickly handed his backside when the Joes manage to reassert the proper chain of command. He also never has any exit strategies in place for when things start going south, often refusing to retreat until massive losses force him to do so. In fact, Cobra has to seek refuge in Cobra-la during ''GI Joe: The Animated Movie'', because Serpentor had led one crushing defeat after another until Cobra had nothing left.

* Adolf Hitler is presented as this in ''Film/{{Downfall}}''. Hitler revokes control of his troops from his more experienced (and sane) commanders for perceived failures and increasingly tries to micromanage his units. He disparages the generals in Berlin as idiots who don't know what they're doing. Despite this, he himself shows a weak grasp of tactics by declaring that battalions and divisions on the verge of being overrun [[LastStand will hold their ground and fight]] [[HonourBeforeReason no matter what]] and at times even grossly overestimating the fighting capacity of units which are so under-supplied and under-manned that they may as well not exist. Even the other members of his inner circle give each other nervous looks as he makes these costly decisions. After the last offensive ordered by his generals, Unternehmen Zitadelle/The Battle of Kursk of July 1943, failed and lead to a spectacular reversal which cost them Ukraine and all the Reich's (experienced) Panzer forces, this became Truth in Television for the remainder of the war.

* ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor'' has a rare good guy example in the reboot, in the form of General Flagg, who micromanages the operation via a teleconference while wearing a ''[[MildlyMilitary business suit]]''. His commands result in an easily-avoidable friendly fire incident.

** This has plot ramifications for later entries in the series. It's little wonder (among other reasons) that ''Soulstorm'' is, along with ''Winter Assault'', the ''only'' ''Dawn Of War'' campaign that the Space Marines didn't canonically win. [[spoiler:Much later it was revealed that the Orks under Gorgutz won. This is even more of an insult to Boreale because, despite Gorgutz easily being one of the smartest Ork leaders ever, he's still an ''Ork'', the one race nobody expects to win via smarts. [[EpicFail And he had to outsmart a]] SpaceMarine [[EpicFail to do that.]]]] In ''Dawn of War II'', Scout Marine Cyrus speaks of the Kauravan Campaign and Commander Boreale with incredible scorn, regarding it as a mistake by the Chapter, and [[spoiler:Boreale's obvious incompetence is even one of the reasons Cyrus potentially becomes a traitor in ''Chaos Rising'']].

* ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'':

* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'':
** On the first UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance game, your first opposing [=CO,=] Olaf, is prone to grandiose plans, thinking a rousing speech is a suitable response to serious tactical disadvantages, and forcing his soldiers forward for glory, completely disregarding the strength and skill of his opponents. Fortunately, he greatly improves by the second game (When you get to play as him in the main campaign) where he's gruff and a bit arrogant, but not nearly so self-destructive.

* ''ComicBook/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'': As the leader of the Insurgency against Superman's Regime, Batman has a very poor record of victories against his enemies and suffers a five-year grueling campaign partly he is undermanned (most of his underlings are {{badass normal}}s while the Regime has several superpowered metahumans in their ranks), but mostly because he insists in fighting a war while at the same time adhering to his "no-kill" rule against opponents that can and will kill. Over the course of the comic, he loses several allies and suffers many crushing defeats, and he is unable to come up with a solution against threats that go beyond his ken such as Apokoliptian invaders or Greek Gods. It takes him teleporting heroic versions of his fallen companions to help turn the tide of the war in his favor.

* Zorin Blitz in ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' is a brute with no greater goal beyond wanton violence, and rather clearly got her position of First Lieutenant due to her magical prowess rather than any actual tactical sense. Not only does she defy orders to try and take the Hellsing manor (which is known to be protected by a vampire of uncertain power), but she also decides to do so in a massive zeppelin against an opponent known to make use of heavy weapons, and then charges the place across open ground when it naturally crashes (unsurprisingly, the place turns out to be covered in landmines and machinegun nests). Despite having three hundred superhuman Nazis under her command, it's only through heavy use of supernatural powers that she manages to ''almost'' defeat one weak vampire and a small mercenary band... that is, until she focuses more on EvilGloating than actually finishing her prey off. Notably, the Major ultimately denied her a dignified death, since she had behaved like such an idiot.

** Caroline Cordovin of the Atlas base in Argus. [[TheNapoleon As arrogant as she is tiny]], she believes she was stationed in Argus due to her "wit and tenacity", but in reality, it was because her superiors in Atlas thought she was annoying and [[ReassignedToAntarctica wanted her away from their kingdom.]] She refuses to let the heroes through solely because they're not from Atlas, without bothering to listen to their reasons. When the Ruby Gang resorts to stealing a ship and Maria Calavera taunts her, Cordoven becomes so enraged that instead of following procedure and launching her own fighters, she takes a HumongousMecha meant for fighting giant Grimm and attacks the Gang personally- and ''loses'', despite having a clear technological advantage. What's more, her psychotic grandstanding ends up causing a spike in negativity from the locals which spurs a mass Grimm attack on the city.

** Cinder Fall is another {{play|ingWithATrope}}ed with example. When her head is on straight, she is a legitimately cunning strategist who carries out the plan for the Fall of Beacon nigh-flawlessly, with only Ruby's Silver Eyes, a factor she had no way of knowing about, preventing her total victory. After Volume 3 however, she shows herself to be... less than competent, falling for a blatantly obvious trap that her co-conspirator Watts points out to her in Volume 5 out of sheer ego and power lust, leading to her suffering a humiliating defeat at Raven Branwen's hands. Her ambitions to acquire the Winter Maiden's powers over Volume 7 & 8 then continuously fail due to her refusal to learn from such mistakes, gloating to Fria and giving her time to gather herself and fight her off instead of just taking her powers, losing a battle to Penny at Amity Tower due to not bothering to remember that Emerald's semblance is Hallucinations and doesn't work on machines, and even after Watts points out to her ''again'' how she keeps ruining her own plans, she proceeds [[spoiler: to betray and eliminate Neo, her only ally in the final battle of Atlas before the battle has ended, giving the heroes just enough of an advantage to keep her primary goal, The Winter Maiden powers, from her]].

** Vladimir's successor General Krukov is less incompetent, but makes up for it [[MilesGloriosus with his incredible ego]] and willingness to throw the PlayerCharacter under the bus for the most minor setbacks, [[MisBlamed even (especially) when it isn't your fault]]. He is eventually framed for treason and the player kills him (the real traitor is [[spoiler:Premier Cherdenko himself]]), but nobody cares [[KickTheSonOfABitch because they want him dead anyway]].

** Túrin, of ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin'', is an interesting one in that he's actually a very good ''tactician''--he is consistently very successful at winning individual battles, and earns respect as a leader of men. However, as a ''strategist'', he is horrific, and a fantastic example of how focusing on winning battles can often lead to losing wars. By his death at the age of 35, he had risen to the command of three different forces of varying size and composition, and subsequently led all three down the path of destruction for largely the same reason. The reason: Túrin, [[HonorBeforeReason in total disdain for the stealthy and defensive approach most other commanders have adopted]], wants to take the fight to Morgoth, despite the fact that Morgoth's forces outnumber and outclass the scattered and disunited Free Peoples many times over by now, and any open conflict will inevitably end in him bringing the hammer down and crushing any resistance. His most notorious accomplishment was probably his command of the HiddenElfVillage of Nargothrond, which had both an obscure location and a natural fortification in the form of a strong river. Túrin pushed for them to build a huge, conspicuous stone bridge over the river, so that they could more easily go on the offensive--said stone bridge not only made Nargothrond's location obvious, but it meant that when it inevitably lost a big battle, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard the enemy could simply waltz across the bridge and burn the now-depleted fortress to the ground.]]

** Túrin, of ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin'', is an interesting one in that he's actually a very good ''tactician''--he is consistently very successful at winning individual battles, and earns respect as a leader of men. However, as a ''strategist'', he is horrific. By his death at the age of 35, he had risen to the command of three different forces of varying size and composition, and subsequently led all three down the path of destruction for largely the same reason. The reason: Túrin, [[HonorBeforeReason in total disdain for the stealthy and defensive approach most other commanders have adopted]], wants to take the fight to Morgoth, despite the fact that Morgoth's forces outnumber and outclass the scattered and disunited Free Peoples many times over by now, and any open conflict will inevitably end in him bringing the hammer down and crushing any resistance. His most notorious accomplishment was probably his command of the HiddenElfVillage of Nargothrond, which had both an obscure location and a natural fortification in the form of a strong river. Túrin pushed for them to build a huge, conspicuous stone bridge over the river, so that they could more easily go on the offensive--said stone bridge not only made Nargothrond's location obvious, but it meant that when it inevitably lost a big battle, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard the enemy could simply waltz across the bridge and burn the now-depleted fortress to the ground.]]

** Saruman of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', despite being an incredibly skilled wizard, takes TooCleverByHalf to extremes when it comes to strategy. At the start of the War of the Ring, he has an army of over ten thousand well-armed Uruk-Hai and wildmen and strong alliances with both Rohan and Mordor. Over the course of just half of ''The Two Towers'', he incites conflict with both of them (by killing Rohan's heir and trying to steal the Ring), knowingly pisses off the community of super-strong treemen right on his border and then orders a massive assault on a fortified stronghold with his entire army. He also makes a number of tactical mistakes in said assault, such as bringing no siege engines besides blasting fire and ladders, not fortifying his rear (despite active fortifications being there) and staying behind in his tower to leave the battle to unnamed commanders, resulting in the army breaking in morale the moment they're attacked from behind.[[note]]Notably, this is contrasted by the Witch-King, who leads his army in the field, uses extensive siege equipment, and utilizes a well-mixed force that only falls due to a surprise attack on a harbor[[/note]] It's not for no reason that Gandalf claims he abandoned reason for madness.

* Cinder Fall is another {{play|ingWithATrope}}ed with example. When her head is on straight, she is a legitimately cunning strategist who carries out the plan for the Fall of Beacon nigh-flawlessly, with only Ruby's Silver Eyes, a factor she had no way of knowing about, preventing her total victory. After Volume 3 however, she shows herself to be... less than competent, falling for a blatantly obvious trap that her co-conspirator Watts points out to her in Volume 5 out of sheer ego and power lust, leading to her suffering a humiliating defeat at Raven Branwen's hands. Her ambitions to acquire the Winter Maiden's powers over Volume 7 & 8 then continuously fail due to her refusal to learn from such mistakes, gloating to Fria and giving her time to gather herself and fight her off instead of just taking her powers, losing a battle to Penny at Amity Tower due to not bothering to remember that Emerald's semblance is Hallucinations and doesn't work on machines, and even after Watts points out to her ''again'' how she keeps ruining her own plans, she proceeds [[spoiler: to betray and eliminate Neo, her only ally in the final battle of Atlas before the battle has ended, giving the heroes just enough of an advantage to keep her primary goal, The Winter Maiden powers, from her]].

* When he still had an army, Kratos from the ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' series. His primary method of spreading the glory of Sparta is by slaughtering cities and ends up nearly dying and losing most of that army because he faced off against a numerically superior foe in open terrain, which is especially ironic given the primary source of Spartan combat fame. How does he save the day? [[DealWithTheDevil Selling his soul to Ares]] and letting the actual god of war win the fight for him.

** A {{play|ingWithATrope}}ed with and tragic case for James Ironwood. When he first appears, he is a genuine force of good, and even when his blind spots are taken advantage of, he still manages to get back up and fight for the sake of others. After the Fall of Beacon, however, Ironwood begins burning the candle on both ends and slowly [[SanitySlippage loses his mind]]. He grows [[TheParanoiac paranoid]], {{shell|ShockedVeteran}}-shocked, and {{control|Freak}}ling, and he becomes [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer obsessed]] with [[AppealToForce outward displays of strength]]. Combined with his [[NeverMyFault refusal to admit error]], by the end of Volume 7, he has become a shadow of the man he once was, now continually making poor decisions that only blow up in his face and hand the villains victories, [[FlawExploitation just as Salem desires]]. [[spoiler:All of his actions in Volume 8 ultimately do nothing but impede the heroes' own efforts, as well as cause what little supporters he has remaining to turn on him. By the end, Atlas has fallen as a result of his own actions, he is all alone, and he dies forced to see that everything he did was AllForNothing.]] It's especially tragic since during the HopeSpots in Volume 7 when the heroes are able to get through to him, he shows that he very much still has the capacity to be an effective leader if his head is on straight and he trusts his allies, effortlessly arranging for Tyrian and Watts' capture before Cinder and Salem reignite his paranoia.