Characters doing stupid and evil things in fan works.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
- In The Stalking Zuko Series, Ozai is portrayed this way. He's described as an incompetent Fire Lord who's better at manipulating people than ruling, and his plan to incinerate the Earth Kingdom is treated as the shining example of how his cruelty overrides his rationality.
- In Kallen Stadtfeld, Countess of Britannia, Kallen has shown that hiring the most qualified workers regardless of race is far more profitable than hiring incompetent Britannians over more skilled Numbers, making her one of the richest nobles in Britannia* . Despite this, no Britannian nobles follow her example.
Crossovers
- Charles Manson Vs The Teletubbies: Charles Manson continues to antagonize the Teletubbies even though he's aware of their titles (such as "The Destroyer of Worlds, Tinky-Winky" and "The conquerer of souls, Dipsy") and their immense power. By the time he begs for mercy, it's too late.
- Megami no Hanabira: Brother Chick of the Flock is an utter slave to his bloodlust and cruelty, and it comes back to bite him several times: he sadistically drags out his fight with Mai and her friends, letting them formulate an escape plan, and then later tries to outright kill a fellow Flock member right in front of Phillips. This gets him Blown Across the Room, and he's almost immediately back on his feet and clearly ready to attack Phillips himself! Luckily for him, Phillips manages to scare him into backing off at that point.
- In My Hero Playthrough, Hitoshi Shinso is a Jerkass hero-in-training rather than a villain, but his decision to use his Quirk to brainwash Ojiro and Hagakure to help him during the Sports Festival and then abandon them when they're no longer useful, which Aizawa considers villain-like behavior, falls into this trope. Not only did this cause Ojiro and Hagakure to do poorly enough that they'd have been placed on academic probation if the UA Staff hadn't decided the sabotage is a mitigating factor, but Aizawa points out that Shinso would have been in trouble if he'd run into a problem without his brainwashed "bodyguards" to protect him.
- In The (Questionable) Burdens of Leadership of a Troll Emperor
, Naruto remarks on the Goa'uld as being incredibly stupid to use inefficient slave labor instead of mining asteroids for resources (which allows ships to simply destroy the asteroids and grind away anything that isn't useful). This shows up again when the Goa'uld finally find the Celestial Empire's location and think them pathetic for "being forced to rely on asteroid mining". - The Weaver Option:
- When the Imperium attacks Commorragh, the Dynasts (the leaders of the Dark Eldar) and Asdrubael Vect (who is planning to take over with a plan that did succeed in canon Warhammer 40,000 but doesn't here) immediately accuse each other of letting the Imperials in and start a massive Enemy Civil War that not only ends up killing nearly 10 billion (yes, billion) of them in a few days, but ties up large amounts of military resources that could have been used against the Imperium. Most of their weaponry, well suited for the act of raiding poorly defended planets to claim slaves, is completely useless in the face of an actual army, their architecture is incredibly bad for the formation of defensive positions and they have no plans for an attack on their city because they simply did not believe they would be needed.
- Chaos, as per canon, is this up to eleven, but Slaanesh takes the cake during the aforementioned attack on Commorragh. When Slaanesh learns of the Imperium's attack on Commorragh (which is the source of a large percentage of its power)... Slaanesh, rather than seeking an alliance with the Dark Eldar leaders that could allow her to take over Commorragh, sends her Legions to attack Khaine's Gate, forcing the Dark Eldar into another front and making them easier prey for the Imperium. Never mind that Slaanesh over-committing opens the door to the other Chaos Gods attacking it in the moment of weakness.
- Dragon Ball Z Abridged:
- Frieza manages to up his canon counterpart in some respects. While his canon counterpart wiped out the Saiyans out of fear they were becoming too powerful too quickly and would rebel against him, in the abridged series he has not stated a reason. As far as what has been revealed to the audience, Frieza wiped out an entire planet that was loyal to him for no reason other than because he thought it was fun. His treatment of his common men is also much worse as he kills a minion to get out of an awkward conversation, a minion who was warning him that Vegeta had escaped.
- Kochin's entire character is built around this, going out of his way to be evil even when it's a bad idea. His boss Doctor Wheelo has died and has been reduced to a Brain in a Jar. Wheelo isn't picky about what body he is given, but Kochin wants to give him the strongest body possible. Wheelo multiple times expresses disgust at Kochin's actions, as well as pointing out easy solutions to getting a body; he could use Bulma, which Kochin rejects because she's a woman, or one of the Bio Warriors, which Kochin didn't simply think of. Kochin's entire plan attracts the attention of Son Goku, whom Kochin wants to use as Wheelo's body ignoring how dangerous he is, and in fact had the body of Piccolo for a week, but refused to use him as a body for Wheelo because he had no penis. Kochin's stupidity gets him killed when Wheelo discovers the exoskeleton Kochin left for him.
- Shinra operates under this trope in Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged. The company is largely run by complete idiots who are more interested in making life miserable for everyone else than they are making money. This is best highlighted when Sephiroth calls Meteor to impact the planet, and the executives are shocked when Rufus states in the face of the crisis that he plans to save the world instead of conquering it.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Ghidorah's left head, San-2/Youngest Brother observes that the Spoiler Character MaNi/Elder Brother was being too careless when brutalizing Monster X and stepping out of line nearly killed the Vivienne Graham half of Monster X in a way that Ghidorah might've been unable to revive Vivienne from, which would've ruined the Spoiler Character's long-term desires for her as much as Ghidorah's.
- Dumbledore, in Harry Potter and the Something Something, openly rambles to people about his "evil plans", goes out of his way to antagonize Harry, and orchestrates ridiculous schemes that seem to benefit nobody, himself least of all. This is entirely deliberate, being a parody of how Dumbledore is frequently written as absurdly evil in fanfic (the Ron the Death Eater page mentions him over 150 times as of this writing), and often by people who don't actually understand why Dumbledore could frequently get up to morally ambiguous stuff in canon, and so write him as being a Manipulative Bastard for no reason other than the story needing a villain.
- Cries Unheard involves a few Yakuza boys who want to profit from an international arms deal that they need the company of Miyuki's father in order to carry out. They could have kept things as simple as taking Miyuki herself hostage, somewhere where her friends would never find her or her captors when it was time to extort important information, and then eventually releasing her and disappearing without a trace once their goods were shipped out. Instead, they try to get said information from her, as if she would even have that or know what goes on in the company and abuse her friends (at least the ones they don't kill outright) until they either commit suicide or stay hidden from society. Way to create more work, leading to causing more people to break down lest they go to jail until they'd have practically all of Japan to keep divided as they try to maintain their freedom (at least had Miyuki and Kagami not killed them first). How they even pulled off earlier operations using this convoluted and increasingly risky method is anyone's guess.
- In Mega Man Recut, Wily would be much more successful if he resisted the urge to be a dog-kicking jerk all the time. It's repeatedly lampshaded by Elec Man, who notes that Wily and the Robot Masters could easily just build weapons for the mob rather than trying to Take Over the World, and they would be much more well-off.
- Lila in BURN THE WITCH (Miraculous Ladybug) continues lying and attempting to throw Marinette under the bus for her own gain… when there's an angry mob, Torches and Pitchforks and all, coming after her, led by an Akuma with the power to reveal her crimes as they happen and turn anyone who gets angry at Lila into mob members. All the while thinking that she's in no danger and she can escape her predicament with the lies and schemes that have been all blowing up in her face.
- Again Lila in Karmic Backlash: In the aftermath of The Karma of Lies, Lila has everything coming up roses: she has fifty million Euros, she has left Paris without anybody but Marinette and Adrien knowing (or believing) the full extent of her evil, she has a new identity and after Marinette was able to find her anyway for all means and purposes only gave her a slap on her wrist. She gets even more benefit when she goes back to Paris early in this story and steals the Miraculous Box, becoming one of the factors of a karmic avalanche that eventually destroys Marinette. But she just could not help herself so she goes back to her regular ways in the new school she enters in Italy, using the Miraculous' powers to bully the next girl who does not fall for her con and flawlessly framing her for assault. The girl, with a jail sentence dangling over her head and having nothing left to lose now that her life will be utterly destroyed, kills Lila the second she gets her hands on her.
- Katsuki Bakugo in Cain is so obsessed with trying to ruin the life of Izuku Midoriya that he repeatedly ignores the opportunities flying in his way, because he just can't accept that Izuku got one thing (All Might's attention) that he can't seem to get himself, and he's pathologically unable to accept blame when the consequences logically explode in his face. The most egregious action is trying to frame All Might as a pedophile and Izuku as a prostitute, only to become surprised when All Might is angry with him.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- In Cubic Zirconia, Diamond Tiara plays a downplayed Deadly Prank on the Cutie Mark Crusaders that ends with Apple Bloom breaking both of her hind legs so badly that she may never walk again. As her furious father Filthy Rich points out, this was not only pointlessly cruel but a completely stupid move because Apple Bloom's family owns Sweet Apple Acres, the biggest supplier to the business that he owns, Rich Enterprises. He points out that Apple Bloom stands to inherit Sweet Apple Acres when she grows older and, because of Diamond Tiara's actions, it is very possible that she will decide to permanently sever ties with Rich Enterprises in the future.
- Friendship is Failure:
- In Friendship is Failure #15: Love and Disparage, Chrysalis cursed Courier to never find love or else he would die, and said curse can't be lifted without killing him. There is no reason for her to make a curse like that since she feeds on love. If anything, she'd get more out of Courier by simply transforming into Cadance and manipulating him into writing for her while feeding off his love.
- How Stone Heart of Friendship is Failure #19: Write in the Head expected to get away with his nightmare scheme without anyone finding him out is quite jarring.
- Never once considers the possibility that Princess Luna, the very being who can look into others' dreams, might catch on to his actions.
- Doesn't bother keeping better track of the stories he writes and never attempts to just destroy them so there's no evidence. This comes back to bite him later.
- He actually makes himself appear in the nightmare he gives to Twilight, Rarity and Starlight so he can be the one who torments them, not realising that this would give them every reason to suspect him being involved and investigate.
- Loved and Lost: Prince Jewelius actually achieves his goal of gaining the Canterlot throne and the adulation of those in its position early on when he steals said throne from the princesses by banishing them, Shining Armor, and the Mane 6 except Twilight while making them into despised pariahs. However, his common sense eventually becomes overridden by his petty, selfish arrogance when, not content with being Equestria's respected king or with having a manipulated Twilight as his bride, he decides he wants to murder Celestia and Cadance to secure his victory. This leads to him luring the exiles back to Canterlot and eventually capturing them again, but he makes two mistakes in the process: gloating about his success to the faces of his captives, which motivates them to rescue Twilight from his Darwinist Desire for her, and forgetting to capture Luna, who suspected he was planning to trap them and separated from the main group to avoid it, allowing her to save her sister from her Public Execution and help the other fugitives escape from Canterlot. In the process, the Changeling army (which he betrayed after seemingly forming a relationship with Queen Chrysalis) also busts out of imprisonment, but he devotes his time to continuing to punish the fugitives, neither knowing that Chrysalis is onto him for double-crossing her nor caring that his personal vendetta has become the public's smallest concern. When this eventually leads Twilight to call him out on his irresponsible rule, he gloats again and inadvertently proves the heroes' Cassandra Truth about his evil nature that Twilight had refused to listen to earlier, and after she flees from Canterlot in response and the citizens sympathize with her, he lets his anger get the better of him, threatens them all just because they didn't kiss up to him like he wanted, and in general reveals his true nature as The Sociopath with no foresight toward the potential consequences, eventually launching an assault on Ponyville despite even his own minions recognizing how extreme it is. Needless to say, after all has been said and done, it's generally agreed upon by everypony that his gruesome death, courtesy of a vengeful Chrysalis, could not have been more deserved.
- My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic: Often, the villain do terrible things even when it'll just hurt them in the long run.
- Nightmare Moon causes quakes that destroy the planet she wants to rule over just to show off.
- The Dark King has pretty much conquered the world in his timeline, so why he insists on going back in time to conquer the past is unclear, especially when the only assistance Starfleet is receiving from the future are two people. It gets even worse when he constantly berates his minions for changing the timeline yet it never occurs to him to just stop with these ultimately self-destructive actions. And he gets even dumber when he kills his most competent minion and saves Starfleet. For a reason that wouldn't be an issue if Dark King was more careful. The reason he is a threat at all is that he is physically very, very powerful.
- The Insectos destroyed their own planet.
- Ka Hotake lacks stubtlety when he betrays his apprentices and does so too often. Since this practice backfires for him the same way twice, once in the past and once in the present, it really is a bad idea.
- Lil's Ghost flees from a battle she can't lose in her first appearance.
- This is Queen Celestia's alignment in Twillight Sparkle's awesome adventure. It's exemplified when she impales King Gilda for no reason beyond "Because… I'M EVIL BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
- Many Naruto fanfics point out Gato's incredible stupidity for bleeding Wave dry. It's an island country with easy access to almost half the continent. He's a shipping magnate. With a little imagination and money, he could have made the country incredibly prosperous, made himself richer, and gained a boatload of goodwill.
- Orochimama: Most of Orochimaru's researchers and officers engage in pointless sadism for seemingly no reason. One researcher asks for permission to start human testing for her research… which involves using chakra to stimulate plant growth. Orochimaru finds herself pondering why said research would ever need human testing at all. Another one is so incredibly reckless with his experiments that he goes through his entire supply of a hundred pigs (for test subjects) in a single week. Still, others have to be stopped from testing a new fire jutsu on a live target, rather than just using a wooden post. Finally, despite Orochimaru stating she's changing policies to increase manpower, most of her officers decide all forms of punishment towards misbehaving subordinates should be fatal.
- In Strange House, Patrick Fannin, Riley's father and the president of Canalave Industrial, hates Pokémon and refuses to allow the workers in the Oreburgh Mine to work with them. As a result, when the ceiling of the mine caves in, without any Pokémon to help patch it up, the whole thing collapses and ninety miners suffocate.
- Bequeathed from Pale Estates:
- Joffrey. The problem with the idea of him being king isn't that he's evil, it's that he's a stupid, insane kind of evil. At least if he were competent like his grandfather, he would run the kingdom well, which is all the nobility and the smallfolk really care about.
- He gets it from his mom. Despite being told, repeatedly, by everyone who has a stake in the succession about how tenuous her position as queen is (and therefore the hold the Lannisters have on the throne), and that the only way to secure it is by having another child, Cersei still takes moon tea and aborts a pregnancy all because she can't see beyond Robert being the father. It never occurs to her that she can just have the kid to secure her position and then ignore it.
- Belluzub in Star Wars: Paranormalities. He's too intent on making his victims suffer to kill them quickly by simple means such as depressurizing a room when he can survive in a vacuum. Zolph Vaelor lampshades this both after trapping him in a force cage and after he gets out of it.
