Batman Gambit/Western Animation: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
* An example from ''[[Batman: The
** Another such gambit involves a gangster and rival of the Joker dying and willing him 250 million dollars. On paper. What ''really'' happened was that only 10 million dollars of the inheritance was real. The rival was banking on the Joker's massive ego not allowing him to admit to being fooled, which makes things hard for the Joker when it's time to pay inheritence tax.
* ''[[Justice League (
* In ''[[WITCH (
** The last episodes of the second season of ''[[WITCH (
*** Of course, this plan {{spoiler|failed due to one small snag - Phobos' right hand man Cedric having enough of Phobos' crap and ''eating him and the power right then and there!''}}
* Sideways, agent of {{spoiler|Unicron and thus chaos}} in ''[[
* And in ''[[
** And in "Endgame, Part 1", Megatron uses one for {{spoiler|his three Omega Supreme clones. Knowing that with his personality, the clones would probably overthrow him, and also knowing that [[The Starscream|Starscream]] would try to get the activation code himself to use the clones, he bet on Lugnut pouncing on Starscream to stop him. It went perfectly - Lugnut got the codes, and Megatron got three walking, flying weapons of mass destruction (in more ways than one, it turned out) controlled by his most fanatically loyal Decepticons.}}
** Long before either examples, in "Autoboot Camp", {{spoiler|Shockwave (a.k.a Longarm)}} pulls one off. {{spoiler|He knows that Bumblebee overheard his conversation with Megatron and that Bumblebee has asked for his help in exposing the spy: Wasp. After providing more evidence towards Wasp's "treachery" while guiding [[Unwitting Pawn|Bumblebee]] along the way, Shockwave plants evidence in Wasp's locker, [[Red Herring Mole|setting him up take the fall.]] In the end, Wasp is arrested for treason, and Shockwave goes on to become Head of Cybertron Intelligence.}} If Bumblebee would've told Sentinel about {{spoiler|the possible Decepticon spy,}} things wouldn't have went as well as it did.
* [[Beast Wars
** Using the {{spoiler|Nemesis}} wasn't Megatron's plan before {{spoiler|Tarantulus was killed}}. Megatron was investigating Tarantulus's ruined lair for ''something'' that would be useful, since Tarantulus always had ''something'' up his sleeve that Megatron could use to his advantage. That ''something'' just happened to be {{spoiler|the Decepticon Flagship}}
* In the ''[[
** Considering how many cars he had been tricked into buying, it might have been more humiliating for the family otherwise.
** In a later episode, "Widowmaker", Francine wishes Stan was more open with her like her neighbor Julie did with her husband Craig, who has been missing for three weeks. After some "therapy" with Roger, Stan becomes very open with Francine, including the fact that he killed Julie's husband for being a blabber-mouth by order of the CIA (and going into graphic detail). Then Francine accidentally tells Julie and has to knock her out so the CIA doesn't decide to kill Stan for the same reason as Craig. Then it all turns out this a plan by Stan and Craig so Francine will quit bothering Stan, and so Craig can get away from having to talk to Julie by moving to a tropical island and taking a new wife. ''God'', Stan ({{spoiler|and Craig}}) is an '''[[Jerkass|asshole]]'''.
** In "The Scarlett Getter", Stan meets an old flame from his CIA training academy and he starts to re-develop feelings for her and ignore Francine. Francine is so irritated by this hookup, she tells Roger to put on a disguise to steal Scarlett from Stan. This works, but Stan wants to break up Roger and Scarlett and hires an alien hunter to capture Roger. Stan and the hunter arrive at the cabin where Roger and Scarlett are planning to have sex, where it turns out that {{spoiler|Scarlett is an alien hunter herself. She knew Stan had an alien in his house before thir "chance" encounter each other and used Stan to get to Roger and dissect him.}}
* In the penultimate episode of ''[[
** That one was nothing compared to the one Clockwork the Time Ghost pulled in [[The Movie]], "The Ultimate Enemy". Knowing everything that would happen, he manipulated events which lead to Danny encountering the evil monster he could become so he could overcome it, change his future, gain his sister as a confidant, and develop his most powerful ability ten years early, while at the same time, pull his evil self out of time so he couldn't harm his own timeline anymore. The only side effect is now that if he ever gets loose, he'll be free to travel into Danny's time without anything to teether him.
* In the third season opener of ''[[
* [[Bugs Bunny]] demonstrates his mastery of the [[Batman Gambit]] in many cartoons, but rarely comes up against a worthy opponent, and will inevitably use simple [[Karmic Trickster|tricks]], like misdirection and "pronoun trouble", to manipulate his enemies.
** [[Duck Season! Rabbit Season!|Rabbit Season! Duck Season! Rabbit Season! Duck Season!]]
* On a handful of occasions, the characters in ''[[
* [[Magneto]] brilliantly pulls 95% of one in ''[[X-Men: Evolution
** Mesmero likes this too. In "Under Lock and Key," he brainwashes Gambit into stealing one half of a spider stone, knowing that Magneto would stop him and capture Mesmero, that Magneto would have Mastermind check his mind for info on the spider, and that they'd find out its identity as a key but ''not'' learn how to use it. (We're starting to edge into [[Gambit Roulette]] territory hereabouts.) Turns out {{spoiler|[[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero/Western Animation|uniting the stones would free the spider monster, which only Magnet could defeat. Turns out the monster's a guardian, and with its death, one more of the three doors opened.]]}} Using other people is his favorite tactic, and his best work ''isn't'' via [[Mind Control]].
* In the ''[[
* ''[[G.I. Joe: Renegades
* In the season two finale of ''[[
** Zuko's attempt to use this Gambit against Azula in the [[Grand Finale]] is brutally subverted. He attempts to bait the already insane Azula into shooting lightning at him so he can redirect it back at her. Azula, being [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]], chooses instead to shoot the lightning at Katara instead.
* ''[[
** In the Christmas Episode, {{spoiler|Santa Claus}} pulls off a beautiful Batman Gambit, delivering a device to {{spoiler|Doofenschmertz}} that would enable him to brand all of Danville as Naughty, while at the same time sending {{spoiler|Perry the Platypus}} a CD with a note sharp enough to shatter said device. When all of Danville is branded naughty, and it looks like Santa Claus won't put in an appearance, Phineas, Ferb, and their friends team up with a couple of elves, who have come to investigate why a whole town would be labeled as naughty. {{spoiler|It turns out to be a deliberate act to allow everyone to get their Christmas wish. Doofenshmertz finds a reason to "hate" Christmas, a villainous area he felt he was deficient in, Buford performs a selfless act, thus allowing all of his friends to see him as nice. Baljeet delivers a gift to a cute girl, thus earning a kiss from her, Candace finds out that she really does know Jeremy quite well, as she got him the perfect gift, and Phineas got to be just like his hero, Santa.}} Ferb got a harmonica, but it wasn't really intrinsic to the Gambit.
** In [[Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across
* On ''[[
* In ''[[
{{quote|
* In the two-part pilot of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** Parodied in ''[[My Little Pony: Camaraderie Is Supernatural]]'', in which Princess Celestia's letter to Twilight includes the post-script "This [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|totally isn't]] a thinly-veiled Batman Gambit meant to prevent the impending Pony Apocalypse. For serious."
** Princess Celestia continues to use some variant of this in pretty much every major appearance thereafter, reasons varying from trying to teach Twilight and friends something, to using Twilight and friends as pawns to get out of having to sit through a boring soiree.
*** To playing pranks on inattentive waiters to screwing with the animal lover's head (but at least she made the bird apologize)...she really loves this trope.
** And let's not forget the second one she pulled. She figured Discord would break out, so she had Twilight Sparkle stay in Ponyville, writing letters to her, explaining what she learned about friendship. When Discord comes and takes over Ponyville, Celestia sends all the letters to Twilight Sparkle in order to snap her out of her [[Heroic BSOD]]. Put simply, it works.
* In one episode of a [[Cartoon Network]] [[No Export for You|Latin American bumper]], ''[[
* An episode of ''[[Jimmy Two
* In [[Spawn]]: The Animated Series, we find out during the third and final season that Al Simmons is the victim of a Batman Gambit by Maleborgia. {{spoiler|Instead of being used to lead hells army, he's actually used as a sperm donor to impregnate Wanda with a demon seed - who'll be the real human general of hells army.}}
* In ''[[The Simpsons (
{{quote|
* In the ''[[
* ''[[
* In the ''[[
* In one episode of ''[[
* In ''[[
* Slade forces Robin to be his apprentice in ''[[Teen Titans (
* In an episode of ''
* In the ''[[Recess]]'' movie ''[[Recess: School's Out]]'', Mikey begins to sing a song. He expects that the guards standing outside Third Street School will attempt to stop him from doing so (even though Mikey isn't actually attempting to enter the building), and will fall into the pit that Sam and Dave dug a few inches away from him. The plan works splendidly.
* Most episodes of ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'' go like this: Gadget gets an assignment from [[Da Chief]] which involves foiling one of Dr. Claw's plans, he stumbles into said plan accidentally, Penny secretly helps him, plan is foiled, Gadget gets credit for it (sometimes confused as to how), villains are arrested (except Dr. Claw himself, who always escapes), roll end credits. In one episode, however, Claw decides to take advantage of Gadget's knack for showing up to eliminate him. He instructs a sneaky agent named the Rat to start committing robberies in one city in a prearranged route, that when traced on a map, spell out M.A.D. Claw's intent is for Gadget to figure out the pattern and arrive at one location ahead of time, where a trap will be sprung. At face value, the flaw in this plan is Claw's ignorance of the real reason Gadget always shows up, but here's the kicker — ''this plan even fools Penny'', who nearly inadvertently leads her uncle to his doom with her usual "help him secretly" routine. She manages to bail him out, fortunately, and the episode concludes with Gadget even more confused that he usually is.
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