Discussion Main / IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance

There's a few examples that just seem to be characters not knowing things. I mean, if a character doesn't know Clark Kent is Superman, for example, they also don't know that the information "Clark Kent is Superman" exists, but I'm not sure that's the trope.

EDIT: Having said that, thinking about it, I think Anti-Hero in Team Superman is an example, because it's not just that he doesn't know Superman's secret identity, it's that he doesn't even know Superman has a secret identity that he doesn't know, and he therefore assumes his knowledge of Superman is complete. That feels more like the trope description. But when the Chameleon, say, poses as Spider-Man and is confronted by Peter Parker, he does know Spider-Man has a secret identity he doesn't know. He's just hoping it won't come up.

Here is the original YKTTW Thread.

I removed the following

• The Order Of The Stick features a end of level boss monster known only as the Monster In The Dark. This character strarted out as a play with a number of henchmen- and Sorting Algorithm of Evil tropes. As it grew into a character in its own right, it drifted more and more into the naively innocent role. Another character, the barbarian Thog, almost qualifies for this trope. However, while naive, Thog's enjoyment of killing people disqualifies him from the innocence part.

because I fail to see how this even remotely resembles this trope. The writer seems to be implying that these characters being naive and innocent, or possible naive and innocent through ignorance makes them this trope, but it has nothing to do with it. Monster in the Dark is fully aware that he's naive, and has recently begun taking steps to grow out of his naivety. Thog isn't naive, he's just stupid. He typically understands what he's doing to the best of his capability.