What An Idiot / Heavy Rain

• The fathers of the Origami killer's victims have been disappearing after their sons are found dead.
  You'd Expect: This would be a major focus of the investigation to find the Origami killer. The cops would look into the missing fathers to determine if any of them might be the killer, or if the killer is killing them in addition to their kids.
  Instead: This fact is almost never mentioned by the police and plays no role in the investigation.
• Sometime after their sons are kidnapped, the fathers are sent a message from the Origami Killer that leads them to a package with all the instructions they'll be expected to follow to supposedly save their children.
  You'd Expect: That at least some of these fathers would report this to the authorities and turn over the package as evidence.
  Instead: Not a single one of them does this. Most of them presumably play the Killer's games and either die in the process or give up halfway. The grocery store owner in particular doesn't even understand the contents of the box; so he just keeps it with him for months, if not years, doing neither his boy nor the cops any favors, all the while moaning how "no one did anything to save [his] son." And he continues refusing to speak, even when a private investigator comes to interview him about it. Granted, staying quiet at that point was Right for the Wrong Reasons, as Shelby was actually the Killer, but the store owner had no way of knowing that.
• When Ethan comes to the warehouse by himself and saves Shaun, Blake surrounds him with lots of policemen.
  You'd Expect: That he acknowledges that he is with his son and realize he is not the Origami Killer.
  Instead: He doesn't and opens fire on him in front of his son. The bright side to this is that he loses his job.
• "Uploaded": Blake is told by Captain Perry now that Jayden is dead, he can do whatever he wants with his ARI glasses. While working, he is tempted to try it.
  You'd Expect: He would decide to throw it away since he feels suspicious of it.
  Instead: He puts it on and enjoys it briefly before a vision of Jayden appears, hinting that he'll suffer the effects of the ARI next.
• "Under Arrest" has Norman pushing and punching Blake when he is beating the crap out of Ethan. This results Blake to pull out his gun at him. If you save Ethan when he's not on the floor, he'll be there to see it.
  You'd Expect: Norman to tell him that he's not supposed to bring a gun while in interrogation, otherwise Ethan might get it which he'll do by grabbing his right hand.
  Instead: He tells Blake that he's out of his mind and shooting him will make him lose his job. Ethan doesn't do anything to save him.
  • There's also when he attempts to tell Captain Perry about it.
    You'd Expect: The captain will go to the interrogation and show Blake who's boss.
    Instead: He just tells Norman to put a sock on it, proving he's also incompetent.
• While investigating the Origami Killer, Blake commits all sorts of crimes with his Cowboy and Rabid Cop tendencies. He breaks into a home he has no search warrant for, brutally beats up a psychologist who doesn't pose any danger whatsoever, beats Ethan during an interrogation, and even brings a gun with him to that interrogation. And he does this all in front of a By The Book FBI Agent, and goes so far as to pull that gun on said agent once he gets pissed off enough!
  You'd Expect: That Jayden would place Blake under arrest for all of these crimes, and possibly put the entire precinct under federal investigation.
  Instead: Jayden does nothing. He continually lets Blake do his thing with only a few weak protests that nobody heeds, gets pushed around, and eventually just continues the investigation on his own. And if he survives to reach the end of the game, he doesn't report any of this. The worst thing that happens to Blake is he gets suspended. Otherwise, he, his equally corrupt and incompetent chief, and the rest of the police force get off scot-free.
• Ethan's ex-wife Grace comes to the police station to talk to Norman and Blake about a few months ago, while she and Ethan were still married (taking place after Jason's death and Ethan came out of his coma), she found him talking about drowning when he returned to work. To her, it didn't make sense as if she thinks that Ethan might have a case of Split Personality after their son's death.
  You'd Expect: That despite all that is happening, she would know that her ex is really a good person and doesn't have to do anything with what happened when he talked of the incident.
  Instead: She ended up mentioning that it might be connected with the Origami Killer, giving Blake a false belief that Ethan is the Origami Killer and spends the second half of the game hunting him down rather helping him find his son and stopping the Origami Killer. Way to go, Grace.
  • Additionally, she handily neglects the fact a lot of Origami Killings have been going on in the six months Ethan was in a coma. This inconsistency is never acknowledged or mentioned, including by the psychologist who earlier reminded Ethan he'd been in a coma for six months.
• Norman's ending, "Case Closed", has him being declared as a hero for apprehending the Origami Killer. After being part of a talk show, he wonders what to do with the Triptocaine.
  You'd Expect: Now that the case is over, he would consider the fact that neither the drug nor the ARI is making his mental health any better if he constantly uses it. Remembering this, he would throw away those two things and never again be using them in future investigations.
  Instead: He only throws away the Triptocaine. As a result, he can see the virtual tanks even without the ARI, making him go crazy permanently.
• Also, the selection of whom Norman will be paired with in aiding the police in catching the Origami Killer.
  You'd Expect: For Captain Perry to realize that partnering a Rabid Cop who constantly uses Police Brutality and a By-the-Book Cop who uses hi-tech equipment would be a bad idea.
  Instead: They're paired to work the the case together and their different ideologies drive them apart and cripple the investigation.

• In the ending, Ethan finds the grate Shaun is being drowned in. He is then confronted by the killer, who tells Ethan that he can have his son back- all he has to do is open the grate.
  You'd Expect: For Ethan to carefully walk backwards and open the grate.
  Instead: He turns his back on a serial murderer to open the grate!
  Result: While nothing bad happens if Ethan arrives at the warehouse alone, the killer pulls out a gun and tries to shoot him if this isn't the case. In this scenario, Ethan is only saved by the intervention of a cop who happens to be there for his own reasons.

• The police are trying to apprehend/kill Ethan Mars, who they believe to be the Origami Killer. A swarm of them travel to his hideout and wait outside, guns at the ready...and then a lone woman comes running towards them, insisting that she has proof Ethan is innocent.
  You'd Expect: For one of the many cops there to take the woman aside and listen to what she has to say.
  Instead: Blake tells her to leave, and the other cops who heard the woman's claim just stand by. Because of that, an innocent man is nearly murdered.

• Madison has a cell phone and access to a branch of law enforcement that does not require Ethan to go to the police directly to explain what's really going on and still get help finding Shaun.
  You'd Expect: He would call Madison, tell her everything, and then tell her to go the cops and explain, because he can still play the Origami Killer's game to buy them time while they use their far superior resources to find his son, which they are already trying to do.
  Instead: He convinces himself he has a split personality and does whatever he thinks it's telling him, without realizing that his alter ego can't do anything while he's lucid anyway and thus nothing is stopping him from doing whatever he wants.

• After completing the Bear trial, Ethan is told his reward was in the glove compartment the whole time, something he did not need to drive the wrong way through traffic to access.
  You'd Expect: Ethan would take the time to carefully look over future trial locations to make sure he can't circumvent any other ones.
  Instead: He doesn't even try to look around, and ends up cutting off a finger when the clue he was trying to get was under a floorboard less than a foot from his chair.

• Ethan is made to crawl through a long tunnel filled with broken glass as part of a trial.
  You'd Expect: Ethan would reach in front of himself and sweep the glass to the side with his arm (and repeat every few steps), allowing him to crawl through the tunnel mostly unscathed with at worst some minor cuts to his arm.
  Instead: He crawls through what must have been a quarter mile of broken glass, leaving his arms and legs badly cut up. This, combined with injuries from other trials, incapacitates him and nearly gets him arrested. Or does get him arrested, if the player botches Madison's section.

• It is mentioned repeatedly that Ethan was in a coma for six months after Jason was hit by the car and killed, meaning that, given the timeframe, Ethan would have been unable to kidnap children due to the coma, physical therapy and more likely than not being kept under close watch by the hospital staff.
  You'd Expect: This incredibly relevant piece of information would be brought up, totally exonerating him.
  Instead: His wife, therapist and even Ethan himself all forget that he could not have possibly committed the entire first round of killings, and either the police and/or Norman never do a background check on him, or if they do it somehow isn't on the background check.

• At a certain point in the game, Ethan's ex-wife brings in an origami figure and tells the cops that her husband showed up on her doorstep with it, while also muttering concerning things
  You'd Expect: The police would follow up on this in a rational and sensible manner and call Ethan in for an interview. The evidence she has presented is circumstantial at best, and possibly even fake (we, the audience know that she is telling the truth, but the police can't possibly know that). In addition, she and Ethan have joint custody of Shaun, and if Ethan goes to jail, she would get full custody, meaning that she has a good reason to lie about this
  Instead: The police instantly accept her story and launch a massive manhunt for Ethan. Possibly justified, as captain seemed more interested in naming a perp than he did with actually finding the killer.
• The ARI glasses themselves are one. It's a virtual reality device that Norman and presumably other FBI agents use to aid in their investigations by giving them a fully 3D graphical interface... that requires the use of a drug Triptocaine to keep the user from either being killed by it or going insane, which like all drugs has its own issues with withdrawal, addiction, and the potential for overdose. Given the existence of Triptocaine to manage the issues it's obvious that the creators of the thing are aware of its issues.
  You'd Expect: Such a device wouldn't be used even if it's exclusively by a government agency until such obvious flaws are eliminated. There really isn't anything the ARI glasses are shown to be capable of doing relevant to the investigation that a plain old computer monitor couldn't do just as well and without such debilitating drawbacks.
  Instead: Apparently the government of Heavy Rain doesn't care one bit about about the safety and sanity of its employees as Norman is given the ARI and Triptocaine and uses it constantly throughout the game. This results in Norman dying or going insane as a result of the ARI's use in almost every one of his endings.
• Madison helps Ethan escape from the police at one point in the game, and later tells him that the cops have seen her face and are after her as well.
  You'd Expect: The rest of the game involves Madison and Ethan working together to find Shaun and discover the identity of the killer, while evading the police force hunting both of them down.
  Instead: No matter what you do, only Ethan can be caught by the police; they never go after Madison. Madison is also absent from a large portion of Ethan’s storyline from this point on, and can die fairly early during her own investigation without it affecting Ethan’s story much if at all. Even if Madison has a direct encounter with the police, which can happen if all playable characters are at the warehouse, Blake does not recognize her at all despite previously being aware she helped Ethan escape and even seeing her do so.
• In the trial where Ethan confronts a drug dealer, he has to kill him in order to get his next clue. You can either go with it or just Pistol Whip the man into unconsciousness. If you do the latter:
  You'd Expect: Ethan to use ketchup or something to make it look like he shot the drug dealer and then send the image to the killer so that he'd get his next clue.
  Instead: He just leaves the man alone and loses out on a clue to find Shaun.
• When Adrian Baker kidnaps and ties down Madison, he has her dead to rights and is about to begin torturing her. He then hears the doorbell ring.
  You'd Expect: Adrian to ignore the door or at the very least, gag Madison so she can't scream for help.
  Instead: He leaves his power drill behind as he goes to answer the door, giving Madison a chance to break free.
  Also: The person at the door is a Jehovah's Witness. Despite Adrian telling him to go away, he lets the man ramble on instead of just slamming the door in his face and return to Madison.
  However: He finally seems to realize this by the third time the man interrupts him, at which point he seems to agree to buy a bible, inviting the man inside and KO'ing him with a baseball bat, upon which he returns to Madison. If she hasn't freed herself by this point, there'll be nothing to stop Adrian from killing her.
• In The Taxidermist DLC, it's possible to botch the stealth and have the killer corner Madison. Depending on how you play, you can have Madison find a chainsaw to defend herself with.
  You'd Expect: The killer, who is only armed with a knife, to either back off or get the hell out of dodge.
  Instead: He still tries to attack Madison, who in in turn attacks back with a chainsaw to the nuts.

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