I apologize. I read too quickly, as did others, and I thought this was a thread about plots. I think the OP intended this to be about plans – schemes, strategms, etc – launched by characters. The Agatha Christie conversation led me (and others) astray; the point was not Agatha’s plot, but the idiotic plans of the murderer (character in the work.)
In that sense, i shoulda used:
After ten years of fruitless back-and-forth battle, build a large horse from wood.
- OK, sure.
Hide a bunch of soldiers inside
Give them food and water, tell them to be real, real quiet (no farting, no giggling, no snoring)… and hope the enemy isn’t watching.
Move the entire army around the corner and hide them
Um hmmm.
Hope to hell that the enemy is stupid enough to bring the damn horse inside the city walls, and hope that a sea-serpent will conveniently eat anyone who says not to
- Um hmmmm.
There are a whole bunch of movies using particularly stupid plans, but they get around them by showing the aftermath of the plan and revealing it in flashback.
For instance, Keyser Sose’s plan in The Usual Suspects is pretty unlikely to work, and extremely convoluted. For instance, he includes Fred Fenster in the plan. Logically, that’s because Fenster brings some skill that no one else does. Yet Fenster is killed. Now, the group no longer has his skills. If his skill was necessary to the job, he’d have to be replaced. If not, why recruit him? So he can be killed to show Sose means business? How could Sose know that Fenster would try to run? What if it were someone else he needed?
Well, if we’re moving into movies now, I’d have to bring up one of my favorites The Warriors.
Cyrus had charisma. Cyrus had vision. Cyrus might have even had some basic intelligence. Even if he hadn’t gotten shot at the beginning, though, there was, however, no way hundreds of gangs were just going to unite because he said it would be a good idea. Even as the biggest gang in NYC, the Riffs had nowhere near the manpower or means to unite all the neighborhoods, let alone all the gangs inhabiting them. Think tribal politics in Afghanistan. In the end, that little piece of turf is all those gangs are ever going to have.
To be fair, it wasn’t a Cliche when they did it(the horse) and as I understand it, they spent maybe a year outside the gates of Troy, not 10. The Illiad begins in the 9th year of the war and a yearlong siege isn’t unreasonble.
I’ve read somewhere else that the siege only lasted a few months, actually, but I can’t back it up.
As I undestand it, a priest tells them not to bring it in, but he’s ignored. Cassandra explicitly tells them that bringing the horse in will lead to the downfall of troy, but since she’s cursed never to be believed, obviously, after hearing her say that, bringing the horse in must be a great idea.
Makes you wonder why Cassandra didn’t learn to either shut her yap or start telling people the opposite.
Cassandra:“If you bring the horse in, everything will be fine”
King of Troy:“We know cassandra is a filthy liar, so let’s burn the horse out here”
I think you mean the ninth year of the seige. I’ve never read any account of the Trojan War which involves the Achaians fighting the Trojans at sea or on remote battlefields for 9 years before they can get close enough to Troy to besiege it.
I think you mean the ninth year of the seige. I’ve never read any account of the Trojan War which involves the Achaians fighting the Trojans at sea or on remote battlefields for 9 years before they can get close enough to Troy to besiege it.