Basic Trope: A character charges into battle without any thought of the plan made beforehand, causing problems for their more careful and tactical-minded allies.
- Straight: Private Bob L. Jenkins, an inexperienced new recruit, ignores the well-thought out plan of attack and assaults the entire enemy army by himself.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob attacks the entire enemy army armed only with a butter knife, forgetting the combined arms assault that's due to start within minutes.
- Not only does Bob not stick to the plan, nobody planned for Bob to be present.
- Downplayed:
- Bob organizes a group of soldiers to infiltrate the enemy base, but doesn't recognize the fact that none of the soldiers are specialists in infiltration or stealth.
- Bob and his friends haplessly go into a dangerous area to catch a criminal that they are rather badly matched up against, and are genuinely surprised when the situation becomes life threatening.
- Bob ignores Alice's strategy in favor of changing into battle, and while he proves quite capable, he would have died at several points if Alice hadn't provided strategic support.
- Justified:
- Bob isn't screwing up anybody's plan because there was never a plan to screw up in the first place. Charlie and Alice's idea of a plan was to simply go to where the enemies were with only a vague idea of what to do, and were planning on figuring out the details as they went along, after they got there. Bob sees the futility of this and decides that he might as well speed up the process.
- Bob is impatient.
- Bob missed out on some details of the plan through no fault of his own and nobody took the time to inform him of what he missed, assuming someone else would.
- Bob is actually badass enough for "Attack! Attack! Attack!" to be a valid strategy; they really never needed the plan.
- Bob is a Norse Berserker, a Samurai, a suicide bomber, or of some other warrior class whose strategy begins and ends in a battle frenzy.
- Bob is Ax-Crazy, and just cares about killing things, rationality be damned.
- Bob just snorted drugs that destroyed his rationality and self-control.
- Inverted:
- Everyone but Bob realizes that The Plan is not going to work and wildly charges at the enemy. Bob's attempts to make sure the plan is fulfilled to the letter gets him killed, while those who wildly charged win the battle.
- Bob is very enthusiastic about retreating, even when it is not part of the plan.
- Bob is overly cautious to the point of sacrificing his momentum in battle.
- Subverted:
- Bob constantly talks about how he can't wait to fight, putting him at odds with Alice. When the time for the battle arrives, Bob decides that it's a better idea to stick to the plan.
- Bob charging in was part of The Plan — for instance, he served as a distraction while the rest of the party did their jobs.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob constantly talks about how he can't wait to fight, putting him at odds with Alice. When the time for the battle arrives, Bob decides that it's a better idea to stick to the plan. A minute later, he decides that waiting is boring and charges ahead anyway.
- Even if the plan required Bob to charge into the fray like a reckless maniac, he still manages to find a way to screw it up, by being too much of a reckless maniac by continuing to charge long after his role of being bait for the enemy is achieved.
- Parodied: Bob charges the enemy and his friends expect him to be killed, turning away in horror. They open their eyes when they hear the enemy retreating in fear of the single soldier attacking them.
- Zig Zagged:
- Bob rushes the enemy by himself without fear of death or any kind of plan, but this is a distraction planned out by his superiors who use his charge to get the drop on the enemy. However, Bob did not know about this plan and the 'distraction thing' was Xanatos Speed Chess on the part of his superiors.
- Averted: Bob is a well-trained soldier who doesn't want to die and as a result, spends most of the battle crouched behind cover.
- Enforced:
- The audience expects Bob to charge the enemy army, so the writers make him do it.
- The results of the battle were decided by fan voting even though the enemy's forces are outclassed and their general's leadership skill is subpar. The author thought this trope would be the best way to justify Alice losing.
- Lampshaded: "He just had to run in there and get himself killed, didn't he?"
- Invoked: Alice encourages Bob's belief in the pointlessness of keeping to the plan, hoping it will make him attack early and get him killed.
- Exploited: General Alice creates a battle plan that takes into account the fact that Bob will charge blindly ahead with no regard for any plan she makes.
- Defied: Someone notices that Bob is about to attack ahead of schedule and knocks him out to stop him.
- Discussed: "Bob, stop being such a Leeroy, you're gonna mess everything up."
- Conversed: "I just know he's gonna ruin the plan."
- Deconstructed:
- Bob charges forth, ruining the plan, and gets quickly slaughtered. Despite this, a victory is still managed, albeit with massive loss of life.
- Alternatively, not only does Bob get slaughtered, but so do his teammates when they were trying to save him and the plan ultimately fails.
- Bob charges straight at the enemy base and is immediately shot. The enemy then goes on Red Alert and activates their defenses, stopping the plan before it can be implemented.
- Reconstructed: Bob is a distraction. By running forward and screaming his head off, he attracts attention away from the main force. If the enemy sees through this ploy and ignores him, Bob has orders to accomplish some other objective. Thanks to his charging force, his team's objective is fulfilled but Bob is still "stupid as hell" for volunteering for such an assignment.
"All right, chums, let's go back to LEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY! JENNNNNNNNNNNKIIIIIIINS!".
