Well, there’s no harm in trying anyway, right?
"For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
Occam's Razor can sometimes backfire: the simplest solution might not be that simple to carry out, isn't actually that simple to begin with, is too costly or ignores several problems (deliberately or accidentally), has already been foreseen (and thus prepared against) by the enemy, is entirely too ruthless for the characters, the character’s attacks make no damage to the enemy, is frowned upon by the beings that set the situation — with extreme prejudice, or is only simple for the person suggesting it while greatly complicating things for the other people involved (whether or not said complication is evidence of them being selfish depends on the writer). Alternatively, the person receiving the suggestion might reply that they already tried it and it didn't work.
Often a rebuttal to Stating the Simple Solution, Cutting the Knot, Cut the Juice, Mundane Solution, Murder Is the Best Solution, Just Eat Gilligan, Screw This, I'm Outta Here or Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?, and is often stated in the work to make sure even the dullest of viewers gets it. Adaptation Explanation Extrication may lead to this (the reason behind something not working may be explained in the original work but not the adaptation).
Super-Trope of No "Police" Option, where the simple solution of "sit back and let the police investigation solve this" (or sometimes just plain "call the police!") falls under this trope. God's Hands Are Tied, is another case where a supremely powerful character is unable to use his power to resolve the situation. Experts Unavailable can be another example, as the individuals that are handy for the situation cannot help at the moment. A Closed Circle is an implied (when not outright stated) example of this trope to anybody offering the solution of running away from a problem, or getting outside help (like for example, communication is impossible because Cell Phones Are Useless, or Cut Phone Lines, or The Radio Dies First) but those options are impossible.
We Need to Get Proof is another example, as a character is unable to expose something/someone without the needed evidence to prove it. There’s also No Fair Cheating, where a game system prevents a player from trying any sneaky methods to cheat the game. Sometimes the answer is that the person who chose the hard road has too much invested in carrying on with it come hell or high water and will retaliate against anybody who so much as proposes taking the easy way out — that one will lead to tragedy more often than not. A simple solution has been mentioned to work a previous time, but It Only Works Once as it can't be used again for the current situation. And for comedic cases, the Anthropic Principle prohibits simple solutions, not because they are impossible, but because using those methods will make the plot come out too short and less entertaining (expect some amount of Breaking the Fourth Wall from the characters to mention this, if doing so is funnier).
May result in Take a Third Option. May be a reason for Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: simply killing a tyrant doesn't necessarily inactivate the regime they're in charge of. Superficial Solution may be one reason it won't work. Also an occasional response to a Combat Pragmatist (sure, kicking the Big Bad in the balls and shooting him in the head is a more fun way to get rid of him, but it's not the best one. Sorry, dude). Expect Exact Words to get in the way of a simple solution (it may still be a simple solution, just one that the heroes cannot figure out immediately).
Characters attempting the simple solution that they were told wouldn't work and encountering complications in the process may result in the ironies of A Simple Plan and Shortcuts Make Long Delays ensuing.
Compare Rule of Drama, Conflict Ball, Watsonian vs. Doylist, Smoking Gun Control, Bellisario's Maxim, and MST3K Mantra, where the real reason the simple solution can't be used is because otherwise there'd be no plot. Contrast Complexity Addiction, where a simple solution would be preferable, but the characters insist on taking a crazier method. Often leads to Death by Pragmatism with the pragmatic character providing a gory demonstration of this trope.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Every time the Trix Rabbit steals some Trix, the kids will always steal it back before he can eat any, and they'll say "Silly rabbit! Trix are for kids!". When he tries simply purchasing the cereal at the store with his own money, the kids take it from him anyway. On another occasion, the rabbit wins Trix in a fair contest
but one of the two judges wants to withhold the prize due to the rabbit being a rabbit, and the outcome is left in the hands of an Audience Participation vote. The rabbit gets the Trix.
Comic Books
- Asterix:
- Asterix and the Big Fight: Having failed to conquer the Gaul village, the Romans hatch the plan of having Cassius Ceramix (a Gaul chief who has accepted Roman rule and adapted to be more Roman), challenge their chief Vitalstatistix through the Gaul tradition of the Big Fight for rulership so he can have them surrender to Roman rule once he takes over. This creates problems for the Gauls as Vitalstistix must fight without using the magic potion (which they don't have anyway since Getafix is temporarily insane) and Ceramix is much stronger than he is. At one point in training, Vitalstatistix notes he could just temporarily abdicate in favour of Obelix who would easily win, only for Asterix to explain the rules of the Big Fight specifically forbid that trick. Vitalstatistix ends up running in circles around the ring to tire out Ceramix, then hits him with a Megaton Punch (without potion even) once he hears Getafix is back.
- Asterix and the Laurel Wreath: While in Rome to look for Caesar's laurel wreath, Asterix has to hold Obelix back when he wants to just go into the palace and beat up the guards until they find the wreath: as Asterix repeatedly points out, Caesar's palace guards are far better trained and equipped than the rank and file legionaries they fight back home and thus could actually pose a threat to them even with the magic potion. note What follows is a series of zany plots to get into the palace, none of which work.
- Asterix and the Roman Agent: During a brainstorming session on how to deal with the Gaul village, Caesar notes that although the Gauls are famous for their internal squabbles, the village always sticks together. Thus, they send a Roman specializing in causing strife and discord (he was sentenced to death, but just being around him made the lions eat each other) who almost succeeds in destroying the village until Asterix turns the tables on him.
- Cattivik: Played for Laughs in a story where Cattivik discovers an ancient monster civilization living in the Fantastic Underworld. The king of the monsters laments that they can't go to the surface because their eyes have adapted to the darkness and they would be blinded by the sun. Cattivik tells them to buy sunglasses if they care so much.
Monster king: Are you making fun of us? Don't you realize that we can only come out at night?
Cattivik: ... So?
Monster king: And at night all opticians are closed?! - The Darkness: Jackie Estacado initially wasn't so concerned with the "Celibacy Clause" that the titular entity came with (basically, the moment the Darkness' host concieves a son, it'll transfer itself from father to son, killing the father in the process), as he'd just use protection. But when his Treacherous Advisor asks him if he knows of any contraceptives that are 100% effective... well, Jackie doesn't take it well.
- DC Comics:
- Aquaman (2003) features a storyline where part of San Diego is sunk to the bottom of the sea and most of the inhabitants are converted into water-breathers by a scientist who had access to Aquaman's DNA. When other heroes analyse the area now named "Sub Diego", the government asks if the heroes could bring the city back to the surface. Superman notes that theoretically the Justice League and the Justice Society have enough raw power that they could lift Sub Diego back to the surface, but in practise such an effort would wreck what's left of the city and set off shock waves along the San Andreas fault. Add in that the city's surviving residents would have nowhere to stay if the city was brought back up at this time, and the government has to accept that Sub Diego will stay where it is for now.
- Batman:
- One explanation given for why Batman doesn't kill supervillains who keep breaking out of prison/containment (especially mass-murdering monsters like The Joker) is that he's afraid of Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and end up killing not just supervillains but anyone he sees as breaking the law.
- In various comic book arcs (including "Hush"), it's explained that one reason he doesn't kill criminals (not even the Joker) is that the Gotham Police is willing to tolerate him as long as he doesn't (only the law is allowed to terminate the Joker, Joker Immunity through Insanity Defense notwithstanding), and if he ever does truly become a Judge, Jury, and Executioner they will label him as another mad-dog costumed psycho and do their damnedest to get him. Batman, who treasures his friendship with James Gordon and prefers not to have to deal with yet another hassle in his war on crime, accepts this.
- New 52: The Red Hood asks Batman, quite bluntly, why he hasn't killed the Joker yet and ended the countless amounts of misery that he brings to Gotham every time he goes on a rampage. Batman points out that Gotham is such a Crapsack World that 1) killing the Joker wouldn't really reduce the number of threats that are plotting from the shadows to hurt the citizens (a fact that he has evidence of with the Court of Owls, which made itself known to Batman by cutting the Joker's face off) and 2) the possibility exists that if the Joker died he would resurrect anyway, or something even worse would appear to replace him (a fact that would manifest much later with the Batman Who Laughs). So for the DC Universe, it's damned if they do, damned if they don't.
- Shazam!: In The Marvel Family issue #10 "The Marvel Family Battles the Sivana Family!", Georgia Sivana has the opportunity to leave a depowered, bounded and gagged Mary Batson behind as Atlantis sinks beneath the waves, but Georgia decides against it because the Marvels are very prone to find ways to get free as soon as they are left alone; thus, Georgia chooses to take Mary prisoner and drag her to her ship.
- Supergirl: In The Green Sun Supergirl, Kara has volunteered to test an experimental rocket. Her rocket gets caught by a warp stream, leaving Supergirl stranded in a remote, unknown part of the galaxy with no easy way to return. Supergirl could have flown out of her ship and back to Earth as soon as her rocket got dragged by the warp stream, but she refused to abandon her craft because it cost American tax-payers $10,000,000.
- Superman: This is a reason why Superman doesn't use his vast power to effect change on a global scale: it's a dangerous slippery slope from well-intentioned enforced peace to a total dictatorship. Like Must There Be a Superman? showed, the Earth shouldn't become overly reliant on him.
- Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Magica DeSpell goes to some truly outrageous ends to try to steal Scrooge McDuck's #1 Dime, including going back in time to steal it from him as a kid. Why the heck she doesn't goes for any other rich duck to steal his possessions and fuel the money spell she wants to do with the Dime (or any other of Scrooge's things) is explained as Scrooge's dime having incredible totemic power that she won't get with anybody/thing else (and Scrooge, with his attachment to the coin, is the only rich guy with a possession that she could use in such a fashion anyway). The time-travel heist also ends up not working because she stole the Dime before Scrooge became the richest duck in the world, so it becomes a regular dime when she returns to the present.
- Marvel Comics:
- Hawkeye: In Hawkeye (2012), The Tape arc revolves around Hawkeye's mission to retrieve a VHS tape owned by a criminal organization that has several SHIELD secrets. Why the heck does a videotape even exist, you wonder (and Hawkeye asks Captain America) when everybody and their dog would just upload it to a computer? Because in the post-Civil War world, with Tony Stark's Extremis-given super-Hollywood Hacking capabilities being well known, criminals have had to go extremely low-tech to maintain their secrets (with some success, to boot).
- The Immortal Thor: After the Enchantress rigs up some magic that makes Thor an idiot whenever he goes to Earth, he asks Loki why they don't just use their magic to counter hers. Unfortunately, Loki's now the skald of Asgard, and beholden to the story. "And then Loki fixed everything" doesn't exactly make for a thrilling story.
- The Infernal Hulk opens with the demonic entity known as Eldest having separated Bruce Banner and the Hulk into separate beings, using the Hulk's body for its own purposes. When Bruce Banner reunites with the other heroes trying to find a way to stop the possessed Hulk, he rules out the option of just subjecting himself to another gamma bomb to turn himself into the Hulk once more because he's already carried out tests and confirmed that his cells no longer react to gamma rays. He speculates that when he was separated from the Hulk on this occasion, the Eldest ensured that all the genetic potential to become a new Hulk was extracted as well, so the heroes need another plan if they're going to bring "back" a Hulk.
- The Punisher:
- The usual result of Frank's method of fighting crime clashes hard with Status Quo Is God, so the usual stated reason he doesn't go after The Kingpin is that doing so would cause an Evil Power Vacuum with civilians caught in a mob war. Towards the end of The Punisher MAX's run, he does go to kill Fisk and succeeds at the cost of his life, leading to civilians violently fighting back against organized crime once his death is announced.
- Frank's M.O. is repeatedly questioned by both criminals and heroes pointing out that he can't hope to keep crime down by killing criminals, and in fact has never done so. The truth is that Frank is perfectly aware of it: he's a Death Seeker whose only goal is to take out as many mobsters as he can before he's finally killed and reunited with his family.
- Similarly, several encounters with superheroes have Frank bluntly stating that until they decide enough is enough and kill him themselves, he's going to keep killing criminals even when sent to prison (in fact, he often gets himself arrested so he can get to a convicted criminal).
Frank: [to Daredevil] You want to stop me murdering criminals by taking me off the streets. That's stupid. Send me to prison and I'll just kill every criminal I meet.
There's only one way to stop me. You know that. If you haven't got it in you to do it, stop wasting my time.
- Ultimate Invasion: When Howard Stark learns that the Maker's as-yet-unidentified enemies have a time machine, he asks why then they don't just erase the Maker before he was born. As the Maker reveals, he's not a native to that universe, so there's no-one for them to erase. Theoretically, they could find the universe he's from, or the moment he first arrived and then kill him, but that'd be trickier. (Also, it turns out he's got temporal shields preventing people from doing so. The only way his enemies can attack is if the shields falter.)
- The Ultimates (2024): When the titular team are coming up with ideas to undo the damage the Maker's done to their Earth, Iron Lad points out the obvious; they have a time machine. Why not go back and undo everything before it started? Doom points out there are temporal shields. They can only go back six months. When Tony suggests undoing the incident that's given them a metric ton of bad press, Doom shoots that one down, since they couldn't prevent it the first time.
- The Simpsons: In one Treehouse of Horror issue, the Simpsons get transported to Middle-earth. Bart spends all his time bugging Gandalf listing hypothetical ways of destroying the One Ring, like using a vice. An increasingly irate Gandalf says "no" every time.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): While taking his Evil Counterpart Scourge to his Zone Cop counterpart, Zonic, Sonic asks Zonic why none of the Zone Cops went to arrest Dr. Eggman, as in this continuity (prior to the reboot) Eggman was a Robotnik from an alternate Mobius. Zonic tells him that a multiversal constant is that Sonic must fight a Robotnik - since Sonic killed his Robotnik and Eggman killed his Sonic, it was only a matter of time before they met; thus it's out of his hands.
Comic Strips
- Calvin and Hobbes: After his Snow Goon comes to life and starts threatening Calvin, Hobbes suggest that they try to melt it by luring it into the house. Calvin points out that the house isn't warm enough to melt it any faster than hours, and his mother would either get attacked by the creature or have a fit at the inevitable mess.
- FoxTrot: In one strip, Jason says there's an easy way to get him to stop tricking his parents into buying video game consoles (i.e. give in and buy them when he asks). While to him it is the simplest solution, it ignores that they're expensive and his parents don't like him playing video games in the first place.
Films — Animation
- The Bad Guys (2022): When Diane uses her computers from her days as the super thief the Crimson Paw to hack into some government satellites and track down Prof. Marmalade, Wolf wonders why she doesn't just try to pull rank as a governor. Her response implies that the paperwork to do so would take too long.
- The Bad Guys 2: When Kitty finds out that the Bad Guys were about to rat them out, she immediately trapped them in their hideout, cuffing them all with golden chains, and suspending them with their gold magnet. Kitty alerts the cops about their location, and are moments from breaking in, but she gives the boys a chance to escape by handing them a remote that deactivates the magnet, but it also activates an upload of footage exposing Diane as the Crimson Paw. So the group can either escape, and let Diane’s secret get exposed, or they can remain hoisted on the magnet, as the police come to arrest them. Wolf first tries to break out of the sadistic choice Kitty set up by swinging Piranha to the laptop and having him remove the flash drive from the laptop uploading the video. Piranha removes the drive, but not only does the upload keep going, but said upload also goes faster. Wolf then tries to get Tarantula to hack the laptop and deactivate the upload, but the system is too-well protected for her to hack quick enough with several of her legs tied. By the time the simplest possible solution of just destroying the laptop comes up, there isn't enough time left to do that properly.
- The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie: Since he has no actual proof, not helped by the fact he just went around screaming like a lunatic and unwittingly attacking the mayor, all Daffy trying to warn everyone about the Invader does is get him arrested and thrown in jail.
- Flushed Away: The Toad's plans suffer a major setback when Rita steals the master cable, which provided power to his base, and which he requires to open the floodgates as to drown all of the rats in Ratropolis during half-time of the world cup finals. To answer why this specific cable is necessary instead of getting any old one, Spike and Whitey attempt to do just that... and Spike is painfully electrocuted when he plugs a replacement in. Toad then points out to Le Frog that the cable is irreplaceable and "of unique design and purpose".
- Justice League: Doom: Vandal Savage initiates a Solar Flare Disaster that will roast the sunward side of the Earth. Superman suggests he push the planet out of the way. Batman counters that if he had a week, he still couldn't list all the reasons that wouldn't work.
- The LEGO Movie: When Emmet, Wyldstyle, Vitruvius, Batman, and Unikitty try to escape Bad Cop's assault on Cloud Cuckoo Land, Benny arrives to build a spaceship for them to escape in. However, Wyldstyle stops him by saying that the skies are filled with dropships, meaning it'll probably get shot down quickly.
- Lilo & Stitch (2002): When the dangerous Experiment 626, AKA Stitch, escapes Galactic Federal custody and is bound for Earth, the Councilwoman immediately declares that they must gas the planet... an idea that is immediately shot down by resident Earth expert Agent Pleakley due to Earth being a protected reserve for mosquitosnote . When the Councilwoman suggests that they only destroy Hawaii—the island Stitch will land on—this idea is rejected too due to the island being populated by humans, the mosquitos' main food source. Landing troops to capture Stitch is taken off the table as well due to the panic it would cause. The Federation's only option left is to send Stitch's creator, Dr. Jumba, to covertly recapture Stitch in exchange for a Federal pardon.
- Megamind: When Titan starts going rogue, Megamind tries to stop him using a trap made of copper (Titan's powers were derived from the DNA of Metro Man, who's weakness turned out to be copper), only for it to not work. Turns out Metro Man lied about being weak to copper so he could fake his death. When Roxanne asks if he has any way of removing Titan's powers, Megamind explains that the Infuser Gun that gave him his powers has a reverse setting, but he left it in the back of his invisible car, which he misplaced after his and Roxanne's disastrous date.
- A Monster in Paris: After Francœur, the titular monster, is nearly found by Commissioner Maynott, Èmile suggets they move him to the projection room the latter works at, only for Raoul to point out that it doesn't solve the problme of someone potentially seeing him. Èmile then bings up the idea of try to shrink Francœur back down to his normal flea size, only for Raoul to point out that the only person who could know how to do that, the professor who works at the greenhouse where Francœur was first transformed, is still out of town.
- The Princess and the Frog:
- When Lawrence wonders why he has to wear the amulet that disguises himself as Prince Naveen, and not Dr. Facilier, the swindling witch doctor explains that his magic has a No Self-Buffs rule.
Facilier: Fun fact about voodoo, Larry... [puts on the amulet; nothing happens, he shrugs] Can't conjure a thing for myself.
- When Louis mentions his passion for jazz music and how he longs to jam on a riverboat with the greats, Naveen asks him why he doesn't. Louis mentions he tried once; unfortunately his flashback demonstrated how people usually react to the sight of an alligator on a boat (whether or not he was playing a mean trumpet); namely they freaked out to the point that Louis had to jump back in the river while being shot at.
Louis: (Flatly) It didn't end well.
- When Lawrence wonders why he has to wear the amulet that disguises himself as Prince Naveen, and not Dr. Facilier, the swindling witch doctor explains that his magic has a No Self-Buffs rule.
- Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase: When Mystery Inc get beamed into a game based on their adventures, a security guard asks the game's desiger to beam them back out. However, said designer explains that they have to Win to Exit.
- The Secret of NIMH: Mrs. Brisby moving her family out of the way of the plow is simply out of the question because of how ill her son, Timothy, is.
- Sleeping Beauty (1959): After Maleficent curses Princess Aurora to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday (even though Merryweather mitigates it to a Deep Sleep that would be awoken by True Love's Kiss), King Stefan has all the spinning wheels in his kingdom burned to protect his daughter. The good fairies know, however, that won't stop Maleficent's curse. Indeed, during the climax when the time for the curse to be fulfilled arrives, Maleficent simply conjures up a spinning wheel and compels Aurora to touch the spindle.
- The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie:
- After being carjacked by a thug, forcing them to walk for miles on foot, SpongeBob and Patrick discover their car outside a Bad Guy Bar, with the carjacker in possession of the key. While contemplating how to get it back, Patrick suggests merely walking into the bar and asking him for it. Considering that the patrons get into Bar Brawls over trivial things like being looked at funny, SpongeBob is quick to say what a bad idea that is.
- After learning that Plankton had turned everyone in Bikini Bottom into slaves, SpongeBob asks Princess Mindy if King Neptune could do anything to stop him. Mindy explains that her father is too distracted with hiding his bald spot to help.
- The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water: After the Krabby Patty secret formula mysteriously dissappears, and with a horde of hungery customers banging at their door, Mr. Krabs asks SpongeBob to try and make patties from memory, only to be told he can't; there's a rule in the employee handbook that flat out forbids memorizing the formula.
Mr. Krabs: [sobs] CURSE YOU, FINEPRINT!!!
- In Superman/Batman: Public Enemies as everyone is figuring out what to do about a giant kryptonite meteor heading towards Earth, Superman suggests he goes up in a lead suit and smash it. Batman counters, saying no amount of lead can protect Superman from that much radiation, and it probably wouldn’t withstand all that smashing either.
- In Wreck-It Ralph, after hearing about how the people of Sugar Rush treat her like garbage, Ralph wonders why Vanellope doesn't just leave. Vanellope explains that she can't; as a glitch, she's bound to the game.
Manhua
- Cupid's Chocolates: After Haoyi learns he needs to grant each girls' latent wish in order to break the Cupid's Chocolates' spell over them, he attempts other options to get around it which all fail due to the magic's effect. Early on, he tries convincing the girls that the false memories enforced by the magic are incorrect using logic, only for them to remain unconvinced. Later, the chocolates' magic becomes potent enough to give the girls reality warping abilities which they use to come to Haoyi directly and keep him in an isolated world until he breaks the spell, eliminating the idea of him just ignoring them.
Mythology & Religion
- Robin Hood: In some versions of the story, it's sometimes asked why Robin doesn't simply put an arrow in the Sheriff of Nottingham's heart. In the versions where some of the Merry Men take it upon themselves to kill him while Robin is away, the answer is made tragically obvious: as long as the Merry Men merely robbed people, they were outlaws and the responsibility of the Sheriff to handle. But killing the Sheriff, a man appointed by the king himself, means they are now directly challenging the king's direct authority and are thus rebels. Sure enough, that's what results in the Merry Men being wiped out, since there's a big difference between the Sheriff's hired goons and the army of actual, trained soldiers that's sent to wipe them out. Even the support they traditionally enjoyed from peasants dries up since the punishment for harboring traitors is much heavier than the one for harboring outlaws.
Radio
- The Adventures of Superman: At the beginning of "The Ruler of Darkness", Jimmy Olsen ends up badly injured and desperately needing a blood transfusion. The rest of the staff offer their own blood. However, it turns out Jimmy's blood type is extremely rare and neither they nor any of the hospital's stores are compatible. Then Perry and Lois come up with the idea of putting an ad in the paper asking for help from anyone with the same blood type, but the doctor tells them the operation left Jimmy severely anemic, and he won't live long enough for such an ad to make a difference. With every simple solution weeded out, getting the only known donor (who has moved to California) turns out to be a job for Superman.
- John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme: One sketch has two kings having a problem with crossed wires and poor communication. Eventually they manage to get on the same wavelength, which becomes its own problem as they're just sending messengers back and forth sharing the same message (and then not sending messengers because they've realised this and are waiting for the other guy to send their messenger over). Eventually, an irate third party from the farmers stuck in between the messengers going back-and-forth all day suggests just shooting the messenger (whose protests that his boss could just give him the day off come too late). In the awkward silence that follows, the king realizes his counterpart has probably done the exact same thing again.
Tabletop Games
- BattleTech: In "Twilight of the Clans", the leaders of the different Inner Sphere factions have gathered together to form the Second Star League and discuss how to deal witht the Clan threat once and for all. Several people suggest that Khan Phelan Kell, leader of Clan Wolf-in-Exile, who's there as an advisor, should just tell them how to reach the Clan homeworld of Strana Mechty so they can send a fleet there to challenge the Clans directly. Phelan points out that even if he told them how to get there, all it would do is encourage all the Clans to band together to destroy said fleet (up until that point, the Inner Sphere had only encountered 7 of a total of 17 Clans). Unless the Second Star League made a show of strength to prove its legitimacy in the eyes of the Clans, they wouldn't take it seriously. This led to them adopting the plan to instead destroy Clan Smoke Jaguar entirely.
- Red Markets: The game is labeled "a game of economic horror" because, among other details (you only get money from looting the identification documents of people left by the government to die or that already had, for one) the players are very deeply in debt with a Loan Shark and the rules are hard-wired for this loan shark to have so much power over the players (the players and the games master determine how, but it can be political, through holding people they love hostage, an extremely hefty bounty ready to be released in the case the players do not pay up or the loan shark dies with literal armies of people willing to claim it by any means necessary, or just having so much firepower on their side that a Bolivian Army Ending is guaranteed, and these are only some examples) that the player characters don't have "we are badass veteran zombie hunters, screw them!" as an option; The Mob Boss Is Scarier than the zombie hordes.
- Warhammer 40,000: The Ascended Fanfic short story "Rocks Are Not Free!" is a detailed analysis of why the Inquisition does not use giant asteroids instead of giant bombs to Exterminatus planets. In short, getting an asteroid to crash into a given planet takes considerably more fuel, money, labor, and, most importantly, time than Orbital Bombardment does.
Theatre
- In 1776, the proposal for independence that John Adams and Benjamin Franklin devise stalls in Congress. Franklin then pulls off an elaborate Glad You Thought of It scheme on Richard Henry Lee of Virginia to get him to make the proposal; Lee falls for it and rushes back to his colony to get the cause going. Adams points out that they could have simply asked Lee to help them, but Franklin explains that if they had, he'd have been doing them a favor and expected repayment in the future. By making Lee think it was his idea, they both advance their idea and avoid political entanglements.
- In Hamlet, the titular character pulls this trope on himself to justify why he doesn't simply kill his treacherous Uncle Claudius, who murdered Hamlet's father to obtain the throne of Denmark. Prince Hamlet fears that the spirit who took his father's form to tell him this might be lying, and thus decides that he needs absolute proof of Claudius's guilt before he acts. Later, when he encounters Claudius kneeling in prayer, he tells himself that he could end it all right now with a quick sword thrust, but decides that this won't work either because if he murders his uncle while he's doing a good deed, he might end up in Heaven instead of having to pay for his crimes. This is also a case of Dramatic Irony, as Claudius isn't praying — rather, he's trying to, but can't because of his guilty conscience.
- Deconstructed in Gilded Cages, Part IV of the Mrs. Hawking series. In a flashback, Malaika Shah is desperate to get food for her starving village, and Victoria decides to help. Her governess Elizabeth suggests that she simply ask Captain Reginald Hawking to intercede: he's not only enamored of Victoria and eager to help her, but a decorated military hero who the British government loves, so they'd be happy to do whatever he wants (especially since the action would be good publicity for them). It's made explicitly clear that this is not only the simplest plan, but the best one—but Victoria herself refuses because she doesn't want to use "charity" to get her way. Elizabeth correctly guesses that Victoria doesn't really care about the villagers and wants to perform an elaborate con for her own enjoyment, but she goes unheeded, and things turn bad very quickly.
Visual Novels
- GENBA no Kizuna: Late in the case, Himatsu proposes the theory that since the victim was a Loan Shark to whom Ryuunosuke owed a lot of money, Ryuunosuke would have killed him to not have to pay back the debt. Ryuunosuke counters that the victim belonged to the Dokuganryuu family, and killing one of them would get him and his friends in even worse trouble, so they had no reason to try. Himatsu has to admit he has a point. Of course, things change when Ryuunosuke's friend Shiku has to kill the victim in self-defense, causing the rest of the group to come up with the plan to have the T-Rex animatronic eat the victim to pass the death off as an accident. This leads to another moment when Himatsu asks why they didn't just report the death as self-defense rather than go through with their scheme and get arrested for various crimes like obstruction of justice, but they point out that they couldn't risk the Dokuganryuu family finding out, and didn't want Shiku to carry the trauma of killing someone.
- In Kindred Spirits on the Roof, Yuna and the kindred spirits notice that Miki and Seina are too busy with work to make any progress on getting closer. Megumi proposes that Miki, who is being given tasks outside of her responsibilities for the beautification committee, just say no to the people making requests of her, but Yuna replies that doing so is impossible for Miki, an Extreme Doormat who is afraid of disappointing others.
- Tavern Talk: In Tempest Tantrum, Una asks the Innkeep if the latter can call Leviathan to fix the zoetrope, but they say they tried praying to him but failed because even as a devotee, they don't have a direct line to him, while he sticks to the Realm Keepers' Oath of Neutrality to only step in to help mortals if he believes it's absolutely necessary.
Webcomics
- Awkward Zombie:
- In Rules of Engagement, rather than face him one-on-one, the protagonist throws all six of their Pokémon at Lysandre, pointing out that there's no reason to obey league regulations when Lysandre is trying to blow up the world. The police arrive and arrest the protagonist. note
- In Writer's Blocked, Alan Wake is wandering the woods at night, finding pages from a manuscript that he doesn't remember writing, and everything in the manuscript is coming true. Alan tries to write a happy ending, but since that's not how magic works in this setting, it does nothing.note
- In Rules of Engagement
- Blades of Furry: Sue has been stalking and harassing Radu for over a year by the beginning of the story, and though Radu has evidence of it he has neglected to turn her in to the GBSF simply because he doesn't want to ruin her career. Chapter 42 delves into the problem with actually using that evidence beyond blackmail, however - though Sue has no actual evidence that Radu is a vampire, the buzz such an event would generate would bring a lot more scrutiny to Radu than anyone would want, innocent or otherwise. It's the same reason why Sal didn't report Sue when she was harassing him, just more extreme.
Sal: I didn't want to turn her in because I was afraid of the media circus that would've come out of my situation... Radu's situation is way more serious, and would make way better headlines... Besides, just because Sue hasn't found any proof doesn't mean no one will, you don't want people looking too close.
- Baskets of Guts: The lich reveals that he didn't kill Anna when they first met because she's a Nature Spirit (a kikimora), which come in two varieties: guardian and vengeance, the latter occurring when the former are murdered, at which point they exist only to avenge themselves and only grow stronger with every failure to do so.
- After being beaten up by the Cossack Bots in Bob and George, Mega Man drags himself to Dr. Cossack's lab with no arms and mutilated stumps for legs. Proto Man points out that he could have just teleported, to which Mega Man starts to curse—and then remembers that his teleporter is broken anyways.
- Daughter of the Lilies: On seeing a particularly large drath, Thistle reasons that it must be using a host body to manifest and has an idea to deal with it. Unfortunately...
Thistle: If we hit it in the right spot, we can kill the host and sever the drath's link to it. At that size, it'll fall apart.
-Everyone else looks awkward-
Thistle: What?
Orrig: Host is a person.
Thistle: oh - El Goonish Shive: When Pandora meets the Emissary of Magic in Grace's dreams, she immediately asks him why he's contacting Grace through her dreams instead of picking up the phone and calling her (or better yet, someone else who can more directly deal with the problem). He is forced to explain that he only remembers who Grace is, why she would be the person to contact, or details about what he's trying to explain to her when using the spell to talk in her dreams. When awake, all he knows is that the problem he's trying to address still exists and that using the dream spell will let him talk to someone who can do something about it.
- Freefall: There's a colony of robots living in secret on a station to serve humans; they're doing this illegally, as they were ordered off the station, but disobeyed because without them humans would be in danger. If ordered, they would come out, as they have to obey human orders. They would then destroy themselves, as disobeying orders is a sign of a glitch that makes them dangerous to humans. Reintegrating them into society isn't going to be so simple.
Florence: Why can't complex problems ever have a simple solution?
Rover17: We have a simple solution. It is simply not a solution that we like. - Girl Genius: During the battle for Mechanicsburg, several people bring up the option of just falling back and living to fight another day to Agatha. She nixes the idea because Mechanicsburg is the Heterodyne fallback postion, so there's nowhere to fall back to.
- Oglaf: In "Politics" (last panel slightly NSFW), a group of peasants being oppressed by a cruel baron ask a passing hero for help. The hero agrees, saying he'll solve the problem by going to one of the baron's orgies to have sex and stab the baron. The peasants try to explain that the baron's successors would inevitably be more of the same and that it's the system itself that needs changing, but the hero remains fixated on his "fucking and stabbing" plan and asks for a list of all the people he needs to fuck and/or stab until the problem is resolved. Going by the heroic (and erect) statue of him labeled "Fixed Everything" in the final panel, it worked.
- The Order of the Stick:
- In comic #276 during the Azure City arc, upon being told about the Snarl and that the rifts in the world are holes in its prison, Vaarsuvius asks why the gods couldn't just repair the rifts themselves. Lord Shinjo responds that they could, but would require the threads of reality that make up the world to do so, meaning they would have to destroy the current world in order to make a new world without the rifts. It's eventually revealed that even this isn't a permanent fix as the Snarl has been breaking free from its prison for a long time.
- After a clash with Vaarsuvius and O-Chul results in Xykon's untraceable phylactery being lost in the sewers, Tsukiko suggests he could destroy his current body and regenerate wherever it is. Xykon sarcastically points out that something might swallow the phylactery in the meantime.
- Played with in that it's the backup plan of last resort that won't work. When it's revealed that the Dark One's essence (a fourth "colour" that has never before been seen) could help the other pantheons permanently seal the Snarl, Durkon is tasked with trying to convince Redcloak to cooperate in channeling that essence. Minrah tries to ease the pressure Durkon is feeling by pointing out that if he fails, the Dark One would help make the new world and the Snarl is trapped forever. However, Thor puts the kibosh on that plan. It turns out there is a gap where the gods have to wait for the Snarl to stop rampaging after a world is unmade before they can make a new one, and due to being a newer god, the Dark One doesn't have enough energy from mortal worship to survive the intermission. To seal the Snarl once and for all, they need to do it with the current world or all is lost.
- In comic #1273, "Julia" suggests to Roy about using Sunny's Anti-Magic beam against Team Evil for an easy win. Roy points out several reasons it won't work. Firstly, it's not that hard to outmanoeuvre. Secondly, Team Evil has two powerful spellcasters and even if they could trap one in Sunny's beam, the other can still blast high-level magic against them. Finally, even if by some miracle they manage to trap both of Team Evil's spellcasters, Team Evil has non-magical party members who could deal with Sunny.
- When Durkon asks Thor why the gods don't intervene to help out the Order directly, he says there's all manner of divine laws that would prevent whatever quick-fix solution Durkon thinks up. After all, celestial anarchy is what created the Snarl in the first place; as Odin puts it, "if everyone was allowed to play in the sandbox all the time, there wouldn't be a lot of castles left un-kicked".
- In comic #276
- Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: One comic has Superman about to punch a mugger, who protests that he's only doing this because his job at the factory doesn't pay him enough. Superman then goes to the factory owner, who protests they can't pay the workers more because the government doesn't encourage it. An increasingly-angry Superman goes to the president, who says the economy is what it is because statisticians don't understand chaos. When asked "so who do I punch?", the statistician tells him he'll need to study math, history, philosophy... so Superman punches the mugger.
- Schlock Mercenary:
- The Toughs accidentally cause a population boom when they break a galaxy-spanning teleporter (that functions by creating a copy of an individual at the destination) by not destroying the original and sending one individual to 950 million different locations, causing perfect doubles to appear around the galaxy. One guy reunited with his wife/wives thinks he's found the perfect solution, only for the women to preemptively shoot down anything that rhymes with "gleesome".
- When a Gav asks Tagon to secure an artifact, he answers that it'd be most secure aboard the warship. Gav then tells him it's a planet.
Tagon: Why can't my clients be happy with the simple solutions?
- When it looks like the galaxy is in danger, Karl asks why they can't just take the ship and leave. "It's complicated." "Try Me." Essentially, space is being warped in a way that makes their teraport (read:transporter) useless.
"That's it? What, are you going to make me go read the footnote?"
- The Toughs accidentally cause a population boom when they break a galaxy-spanning teleporter (that functions by creating a copy of an individual at the destination) by not destroying the original and sending one individual to 950 million different locations, causing perfect doubles to appear around the galaxy. One guy reunited with his wife/wives thinks he's found the perfect solution
Web Animation
- The Amazing Digital Circus: "The Mystery Of Mildenhall Manor", Zooble keeps explaining to Caine about how much they hate their changeable avatar and wants to find a body that fits them better, but Caine keeps on providing the same solution by giving them a box of Zooble parts for them to swap out, to find the look that suits them, as Zooble keeps telling him that they’ve been struggling to find the right ones ever since they got trapped in the digital circus.
- Battle for Dream Island:
- Battle for Dream Island Again in "Insectophobe’s Nightmare 3" the teams were assigned to kill their own batch of bugs while trapped in glass boxes, on Team No-Name, Firey simply tries to burn the bugs, however his fire isn’t doing any damage, as Puffball Speaker Box explains that the bugs are fire-proof.
- Battle for Dream Island: The Power of Two in "Gardening Zero", the teams had to protect each of their endangered flowers from different locations. Team Death P.A.C.T. Again had to protect their plant in the jungle, but soon Puffball intrudes their biome to sabotage the team. As she was about to eat their flower, Remote reminds Puffball of an earlier rule, that if she kills the plant herself, then her own team will be up for elimination. So Puffball tries to sabotage in a different way. She then exits, and comes back with Ice Cube, and pushes her in the ground by their flower, as the flower is now draining Ice Cube’s moisture, and slowly killing her. So Puffball gives them the risky choice to either kill the plant to save Ice Cube, but forfeiting the challenge, or they let the plant absorb Ice Cube, with the team responsible for her death. (as the team has a priority on protecting people from death) At first, Remote tries to get out of the situation by pulling Ice Cube out, but even when using 110% of her battery strength, she couldn’t get Ice Cube out, as Puffball really wedged her in deep. Tree then suggest just taking Ice Cube’s bracelet off, so she would teleport back home, but Fanny explains that if she teleports while in the ground, she’ll just teleport underground and suffocate. So the team made the choice to… kill the plant.
- Cartoons in Danganronpa: Because several of the students have actual superpowers, Monokuma pulls a few extra stops compared to prior Killing Games; the walls are Made of Indestructium to keep students with Super-Strength from breaking out, Jenny, Blossom, and Bubble's powers are nullified to keep them from protecting the other students, and Star's Dimensional Scissors are blocked off.
- Doobus Goobus: In "The T-Rex with Chainsaws for Arms", Goobus is presenting a kid the titular dinosaur. The kid asks if the t-rex does any exciting stuff, but he explains that the dinosaur just uses it's chainsaws to slice bread for sandwiches and make paper snowflakes. The kid then asks if the dinosaur actually kills anyone, which Goobus confirms, saying that it can just use it’s big jaws to gobble up it's prey in one bite, for if it uses the chainsaw hands, it’ll just make it's food messy, as the chainsaws were only made for the former things he listed.
- Dr. Crafty: For the final question of "Migraine Over Matter", Crystelle is asked why Jedah cannot help the Crafty Crew take Mindstein to court. Jedah suddenly appears and rapidly recites a law—in depth—about why he cannot help on that front. To put it succinctly, upholding due process for Mindstein is a moot point, as she can put up quite a fight should anyone try and force her to attend a court session. Plus, she's inarguably, unabashedly evil; her criminal acts are so blatant that she'd be incarcerated on the spot, given the chance.
- The Grover Guys: After The Grover Guys teleported to Dirty Dick's cabin, Beanie suggested that they could've teleported outside of the cabin so that they can make a dramatic entrance. Mikey and D.D. dismissed the idea since they blew their animation budget on the teleportation effects and that making it to the cabin was good enough. Beanie begrudgingly agrees as a result.
- Although How It Should Have Ended often gleefully points out how many plots could have been easily avoided with simple solutions, it also points out that not all of these solutions would work.
- When It tries to emerge from a projector to attack the Losers, Beverly unplugs unplugs the machine. But It never needed the projector, and just jumps out at them from nowhere.
I'm magic, remember?
- How Scream Should Have Ended mostly takes the form of an in-universe lecture about how to survive a horror movie, giving sensible advice like "don't go out when there's a killer on the loose" and "if you're being attacked in an occupied house, call out for help." However, none of this works if the killer invades your dreams, as Freddy points out.
- When It tries to emerge from a projector to attack the Losers, Beverly unplugs unplugs the machine. But It never needed the projector, and just jumps out at them from nowhere.
- I Want In: The main premise of the game is about many objects wanting to enter the store, but Checkout Counter explains that the store is flooded with 99 customers at the moment, and the building can only support a 100-person capacity, so if too many people enter, the whole place will blow up, so they settle this with a game show where the objects will battle each other to win a spot to enter the store.
- Lumpy Touch: In Lumpy Where's Waldo, after spending three episodes trying and failing to stop Waldo's killing spree, the Detective decides to snipe him with a tranquilizer dart instead. Since in this universe Waldo also has the ability to teleport, he uses it to deflect the dart, leave a message around the area indicating he knows their plan, and stops by their office to leave a note about playing dirty.
- Minilife TV: In "The X-Team Attacks", when Chris and Ian try to rescue the hostages locked in a room full of bombs, their first idea is to cut the door open with their Starsabers. However, the hostages tell them that the bombs are connected to the door and they'll detonate if they try to cut it open, so they try to find another way to get them out.
- Rawfler: In the beginning of "RAIDEN SHOGUN.EXE", Ei, Venti and Zhongly sit down to lunch and she tells them that all her friends are dead, expressing it as their health points dropping to zero a long time ago. Xiangling suggests her making Teyvat fried eggs, which in-game are items able to revive fallen characters. Zhongli and Venti freeze in shock and Ei's face turns completely pale because she's completely unable to cook
- In Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, Sarge considers turning either Grif or Simmons into a cyborg to replace Lopez as Red Team's "Mechanicle-type person". It's pointed out that instead of doing that, Sarge could build another robot, but Sarge shoots that down on the logic that a second robot could be reprogrammed just as they believe Lopez was. (The truth is a bit more complicated)
- Schaffrillas Productions: In Episode 1 of "Grievous and Sid", General Grievous becomes fixated on having a 2-pack of Totino's pizza rolls that Watto (who claims that Grievous can enjoy them even if he doesn't have a mouth) is selling for 500 cents, which neither Grievous or Sid the Sloth can afford. When Grievous asks Watto what's stopping them from simply killing him and claiming the pizza rolls for themselves, Watto explains that a bomb inside the bag will go off if they kill him, which will destroy the pizza rolls.
- In the Sam & Max/The Purge Universe fan video, "Sam & Max: I'm Dreaming of a Pretentious Bloodshed", the Freelance Police treat the Purge as a bank holiday, since the whole 'all crime is legal' aspect means they're out of the job for that night. When the question of 'Why don't you guys just join in the catharsis of the Purge?' is brought up, Max explains that between him and Sam already engaging in senseless violence on a regular basis (and getting paid for it to boot), and the fact the whole thing's just a scheme by the rich to Kill the Poor, it loses it's appeal.
- SCP Foundation:
- SCP-2305 is a book titled "great ideas that are TOTALY [sic] USELESS". True to its name, it contains creative or simple ways to neutralize random SCPs — along with a log explaining how this would backfire. For example, SCP-2315 is an ancient stone bridge that makes anyone who crosses it irrationally hate Carthage. According to 2305, the Foundation could simply blow it up, but then the effect would spread to every bridge in Italy, and then Italy would declare war on Tunisia for no reason.
- SCP-2718 is supposedly a cognitohazard so horrific that it states even opening the file containing it is a security breach. If you read past that warning it explains the file was created by one of such high clearance and saved in a unique way that it's impossible to delete, corrupt, edit the part containing the cognitohazard, or add access restrictions without completely destroying the rest of the Foundation's digital infrastructure.
- SCP-5733 is a video cassette of a slasher film where, towards the end, the Final Girl breaks the fourth wall and asks the viewer for help, whereupon the viewer can give her advice. Unfortunately, this is hampered by the fact the killer is always several steps ahead. Take a car? Either the tires are slashed or the killer's hiding in the backseat. Grab her father's shotgun? Killer took the shells. Call for help? Smashed phone. Run to the neighbors for help? Killer got to them first.
- In the fan movie SCP: Dollhouse, after the operatives determine that the bizarre happenings in the house they were sent to are tied to a laptop running a glitchy program that warps reality, one of them asks why not just hit the power switch. Fletcher, the tech guy, immediately rebuffs the idea, because there's no telling what will happen if they turn off the machine.
- SCP-2305
- Spooky Month, in "Tender Treats", Bob Velseb, the serial killer from "its spooky month" comes back to attack Lila. So Lila tries to do what she did last time, and offer him some candy to raise his spirit for Spooky Month. Even when he eats her candy, and does the spooky dance, it doesn't stop his urge to kill this time.
- Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers: In "Mario Does Literally Anything for Views", SMG4 is worried that he will not get 5 million subscribers in time for the Milestone Celebration that he has planned for the following week. When Mario points out that he could just move it to a later date, SMG4 responds that he can't as he has hyped it up too much.
Web Videos
- Atop the Fourth Wall:
- During the "Gun and Sorcery" arc, Linkara explains just where gets all those weapons and gadgets from other franchises: he has a spellbook that contains, among other things, an enchantment that turns a toy version of something ino the real thing (for example, a toy sonic screwdriver becomes a real one). When Harvey asks why Linkara never used it to create a 'Destroy Mechakara Forever' button or something, Linkara explains that the spell has restictions on what it can and can't do: he can't create a convenient weakness for his enemies, he has to recreate every aspect of the object the spell's being worked on (he mentions how it was a pain to get his Power Rangers stuff to work without a Morphing Grid), and his experiments with Yu-Gi-Oh! cards implies that stuff with text is problematic.
- Later that arc, when Holokara starts acting evil and the others are conviening to discuss options for taking him out, Harvey suggests just shooting his mobile emitter. Dr. Linksano explains that, since the emitter is based on Star Trek technology, Holokara is paritally made of forcefields, which he could expand to cover the emitter.
- In the "His Blue Soul" arc, after a returned Lord Vyce voices his plans to resume his hunt of the Entity, Linkara tries to explain that the Enitity is dead at this point, only to be brushed off by a skeptical Vyce. When Linkara points out there are videos of the Entity's death, Vyce counters that they could either be fakes made by Linkara to trick him, or a trick by the Entity.
- During the "Gun and Sorcery" arc, Linkara explains just where gets all those weapons and gadgets from other franchises: he has a spellbook that contains, among other things, an enchantment that turns a toy version of something ino the real thing (for example, a toy sonic screwdriver becomes a real one). When Harvey asks why Linkara never used it to create a 'Destroy Mechakara Forever' button or something, Linkara explains that the spell has restictions on what it can and can't do: he can't create a convenient weakness for his enemies, he has to recreate every aspect of the object the spell's being worked on (he mentions how it was a pain to get his Power Rangers stuff to work without a Morphing Grid), and his experiments with Yu-Gi-Oh! cards implies that stuff with text is problematic.
- Dragon Ball Z Abridged: During The Stinger of Episode 38, when Gohan is carrying Yajirobe, Bulma, and baby!Trunks in a rather akward manner (Yajirobe on his back, Bulma in his arms, who herself is carrying Trunks), he asks Bulma if it would be safer to let Yajirobe hold her son. Bulma bluntly states that she's worried that Yajirobe might 'either drop him or eat him out of spite'.
Yajirobe: I am pissed and hungry. She is right to fear me.
- The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon: Even if his method of murder is absurd, the Ginosaji is still a malevolent ghost in the vein of Ju-on, and has the same strengths. Calling the cops? "A maniac is trying to beat me to death with a spoon", plus the Ginosaji may just go through them. Running away is no good. Protective clothing? Does nothing to make the Ginosaji go away, and even if it takes a million hits, you will eventually feel his spoon. Fighting back? Please. Try a Spiteful Suicide to check out on your own terms? The Ginosaji will move mountains to deny this to you. You will die by spoon, and it will be neither quick nor painless.
- In one of his Counter Monkey videos, The Spoony One explains in great detail why in The Lord of the Rings the Fellowship can't just ride to Mordor on eagles,note and then says that, if he were ever to run another campaign of The Lord Of The Rings tabletop game, he would love to spring this trope on a party who thought they were clever.
- This stop-motion Lego animation also spells out why eagles can't do everything.
- This stop-motion Lego animation also spells out why eagles can't do everything.
- Sword Art Online Abridged:
- When Kayaba explains why Sword Art Online has the "cannot log off and players die in real life if they are killed in the game" bug (namely, that it is an actual bug - Kayaba had been sleep deprived for three weeks straight getting the game ready to launch and screwed up the programming), Kirito asks why he didn't ask the game company for more time to remove the bug. Kayaba then says that he did, but the game was being Christmas Rushed and the company refused to grant him an extension.
Kayaba: Fuckin' Bethesda.
- When Asuna wonders why he never tried to blame everything on a third party instead of taking credit in a horribly misguided attempt to save face, Kayaba's reaction makes it clear it never crossed his sleep deprived mind.
- Kirito justifies recklessly challenging the World Tree solo instead of at least getting together more players for a raid with the excuse that not only do they only have today since Sugou moved up the wedding to tonight, but he's afraid that someone might notice the admin card is missing and change the codes, so time is of the essence.
- When Kayaba explains why Sword Art Online has the "cannot log off and players die in real life if they are killed in the game" bug (namely, that it is an actual bug - Kayaba had been sleep deprived for three weeks straight getting the game ready to launch and screwed up the programming), Kirito asks why he didn't ask the game company for more time to remove the bug. Kayaba then says that he did, but the game was being Christmas Rushed and the company refused to grant him an extension.
- Vampires SMP: In Episode 7, Avid brings up the possibility of trapping Apo's room with silver or using the classic "four iron/silver doors around a pressure plate" trap against her for "betraying" the castle vampires, wondering why nobody thought of it before. Owen and Scott promptly remind him that vampires can't craft with silver, and at their current power, can't hold silver or even get close to it, so using silver against one of their own would never work.
You can't just casually put The Stinger here, it'll cause a Reality-Breaking Paradox!
