Dumb choices made in the anime

Also called "What an Idiot!" as a trope. This page lists what dumb choices cause things to go wrong in the anime.

## Season 1

* Joy often ships Victoria and Arcturus, much to their annoyance.
	+ **You'd Expect**: Her to finally just shut up at one point.
	+ **Instead**: She just keeps going, resulting in her breaking a promise.
	+ **Result**: She causes the witch-outs of Arcturus (in episode 10) and Victoria (in episode 11).

## Season 2

* In "Unresolved Conflicts..."
	+ **You'd Expect**: The girls to follow orders without a puss.
	+ **Instead**: The HoloCouncil and the Guardians (sans Melody) get into a fight with each other.
	+ **Result**: Melody is forced to fight an Ekim-Herian alone, and she gets seriously injured.

## Season 4

* Shortly prior to Season 4...
	+ **You'd Expect**: For Katrina to finish her math homework on time so it doesn't pile up later, and apply a cloaking spell (which are recommended for powerful magic users, not to hide their magic, but so they can't be *tracked* by those with ill intentions).
	+ **Instead**: She doesn't want to do her homework, procrastinates until she has an entire stack of it, and doesn't bother to apply a cloaking spell due to not believing that somebody bad would follow her strong magic trail to her.
	+ **Result**: Queen Vera easily follows the magic trail straight to her, seizes the opportunity to get her hands on her immense power, and seasons 4-13 happen. The citizens of the Multiverse are also devastated at the Guardian of the Cosmos' disappearance, as are her parents.

* Even a thousand years after Season 1, Arcturus is *still* grieving and bitter from Victoria's death.
	+ **You'd Expect**: Him to regularly see a therapist, counselor, or someone similar to discuss his feelings with.
	+ **Instead**: The thought of therapy never once crosses his mind.
	+ **Result**: He is extremely vengeful, bitter, psycotic, and borderline evil, even developing alcoholism in an effort to block out the painful memories.

## Season 5

* In "Behaver Yourself..."
	+ **You'd Expect**: Behaver to realize that love is supposed to be freely shared, not taken by force.
	+ **Instead**: She doesn't realize this and forcibly vacuums up love from civilian after civilian, even her own friends.
	+ **Result**: Melody falls into a severe coma from having so much love stolen, and *absolutely none* of her stolen love makes her any less miserable.

## Season 7

* In "Unlocking the Red Chain of Events!"...
	+ **You'd Expect**: All of the Guardians to avoid the possibility of getting captured.
	+ **Instead**: Mami mysteriously gets captured by Team Galactic during the commotion.
	+ **Result**: Looker gets even *more* infuriated, not just over a setback, but also Mami's kidnapping. Since Kyoko was the second friend Mami made, *she* ***GOES BERSERK*** as soon as Looker leaves, forcing Melody to stop her with a clapperboard.

## Season 8

* Elizabeth is *extremely* optimistic and is a huge believer in second chances.
	+ **You'd Expect**: Her to smarten up and listen to the others' concerns that Meowth may be tricking them in "Meowth's Scrafty Tactics."
	+ **Instead**: She refuses to listen to them, forgives him, and insists he should be allowed to travel with the group if he says he's redeemed himself.
	+ **Result**: Meowth travels with the group, gains the Guardians' trust, and steals the Pokémon from Nimbasa City Pokémon Center and the Guardians' Pokémon, as well as the transformation items, Elements of Harmony, and Kyubey.

* Nevaeh is jealous of Bianca since she also has a crush on Cheren, and wants to be his girlfriend instead.
	+ **You'd Expect**: Her to keep it to herself, especially since she is older than him and is technically an adult.
	+ **Instead**: She expresses her jealousy by violently sabotaging a date the two are having with her powers and attacking Bianca.
	+ **Result**: Bianca's father, after hearing about the incident, gets too worried about her safety and bans his daughter from being a Trainer and a Guardian, causing Bianca to run away and become a witch. He also almost presses charges against Nevaeh due to her being an adult, though he ultimately doesn't.

## Season 9

* Baelz doesn't need to be Fury Swiped by Meowth without getting hypnotized.
	+ **You'd Expect**: Her to either make herself not hypnotized using her magic or just let Meowth use Fury Swipes on her.
	+ **Instead**: She tells Mumei to dodge the move, or else she will get hypnotized too, due to being the "Civilization" Guardian.
	+ **Result**: Malamar gets tricked by Baelz, but she is still captured by the hypnotized Guardians, much to Melody's ***ABSOLUTE FURY***. It is, in fact, that act that Nina's Trauma Button gets one step closer to being pressed.
* Under any circumstances, don't let Raging Dragon destroy the forest with his strong power.
	+ **You'd Expect**: Kronii decides that she will not torture anycreature thanks to Raging Dragon's harm, or else *she* might be harmed.
	+ **Instead**: Kronii calls Fauna to stop him, but it backfires when *Elis* steps up and loses it.
	+ **Result**: Lysandre forces Raging Dragon to retreat back to Team Flare's headquarters, while a dizzy Elis takes Nanette and Marina back to Aspertia to get treated. Poor Nina, she could have done *something*!

## Season 10

* Dragonet tends to have a Hair-Trigger Temper. In "Heck's Kitchen," she furiously yells at the Guardians to move faster and not screw up cooking.
	+ **You'd Expect**: Her to calmly explain that she doesn't want them to screw up because improperly handled food could sicken or even kill the VIP guests.
	+ **Instead**: She yells and swears at them constantly (like Gordon Ramsay), and screams at the dessert team at the top of her gills that they completely forgot to put sugar in the cheesecake *after they already serve it and the VIPs complain*. While it is their fault, she yells at them excessively.
	+ **Result**: Nagisa cries at being so harshly yelled at and witches out again.
* Ash barely knows how to cook and thinks making a sandwich counts as "cooking." In "A Shocking Grocery Run..."
	+ **You'd Expect**: Him to actually listen and follow Kyubey and Kyoko's instructions on how to cook properly, or at least watch a cooking show as he does.
	+ **Instead**: He uses everything in the fridge, adds excessive amounts of salt and pepper, and burns the food, which makes Kyoko extremely angry at him for wasting food.
	+ **Result**: The fridge is now empty, forcing him, Kyoko, Kyubey, and the Pokémon to go shopping for more food, which sets off the whole plot of the episode.

* Mia has an extreme phobia of Tentacruel and Tentacool. In "The Island Whisperer..."
	+ **You'd Expect**: Lila (her Mareanie) and Lana to *not* point out the Tentacruel in the ocean while the Guardians are in Olivia's boat.
	+ **Instead**: Lila briefly forgets and says "Whoa, look at those Tentacruel!", and Lana replies "They're so cool in person!"
	+ **Result**: Mia's Trauma Button is triggered, causing her to scream at the top of her lungs and nearly *jump off the boat* in panic before Marina grabs and stops her.

## Season 11

* Queen Vera sends Necrosis on a solo mission to Galar to kill the heroes.
	+ **You'd Expect**: Her to send her other three minions as well to help defeat the Guardians.
	+ **Instead**: She sends her by herself, straight to a group of children who preach friendship, in the middle of a huge crisis with Eternatus.
	+ **Result**: The Guardians take advantage and befriend her, causing her to learn what friendship is, be transformed into a human, and ditch the villains for good.

## Season 12

* In "What Lies Beyond Truth and Ideals!"...
	+ **You'd Expect**: All the Guardians to use Elemaximum without any problems.
	+ **Instead**: Cheren goes bonkers due to Gina's spirit temporarily controlling his body (which is what he himself did not even expect), and he, along with Blood Raged Aurea, Elis and Jim, recklessly destroys the machiene.
	+ **Result**: Cheren falls into a coma, while Aurea gets her severe injuries treated. Elis and Jim, on the other hand, are forced to stay in their homes for the next few episodes due to ***VERY*** severe injures for the former and a system error for the latter, leaving Nanette completely traumatized (up to the point where she witches out ***YET AGAIN***) and also results of Jim got the paranoia of people have anti-technology spells.

## Season 13

* Queen Vera keeps Event Horizon's true identity a secret from the Guardians. In "A Devastating Revelation..."
	+ **You'd Expect**: Her to *not* tell them who she is at all and keep her mouth shut.
	+ **Instead**: She brags to them about how she has the most powerful Guardian in the Multiverse under her control and forced her to work for her by brainwashing her.
	+ **Result**: The Guardians now know who she is and realize she is a victim of Queen Vera's, resulting in her being saved from her control and returning to normal.

## Season 15

* In the short "Melody's Trauma," Melody becomes extremely traumatized by all her friends and family members passing away and witches out.
	+ **You'd Expect**: Her to ask the Magic of Friendship to make her pass away peacefully so she can join them.
	+ **Instead**: She never thinks of this idea and remains stuck as a child for *another* thousand years.
	+ **Result**: She becomes secretly extremely depressed and is shown in Season 16 to slowly be losing her sanity.

* Somewhere else in the afterlife just before the events of Season 15, Jim lost his sanity and became strayed from his friends and family, regretting asking the MOF to let him join with them.
	+ **You'd Expect**: Magic of Friendship will bring him back to life as he requested to save Melody or live a new life again.
	+ **Instead**: Just a few years ago, his friends and family try to stop him from leaving the afterlife all the time when it comes to him revive himself via any means, no matter how he tried with different plans. At this point, he reached the breaking point and got enough of getting his plans foiled.
	+ **Result**: He becomes nothing but a sociopath, having lost most of the definitions of love and friendship. Only to beating up his friends (even family members and his ancestor) with a baseball bat (or with anything he got) whenever they try to stop him, causing a riot and even burning down the Porter Palace to the ground as revenge and run away as a attempt to make his other self-reviving plan success.