Beat Them At Their Own Game: Difference between revisions
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Compare [[Faustian Rebellion]], where the villains really should be ''in charge'' of the game, yet are at risk. Also compare [[Hoist by His Own Petard]], which is where villains are defeated by their own weapon or plot, but not necessarily by a hero.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime ==▼
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Beet the Vandel Buster]]'' could fight effectively against the gun-wielding Frausky only after he had learned how to properly use his own gunlike [[Empathic Weapon]], as opposed to his other four [[Empathic Weapon
* The main crew of ''[[One Piece]]'' tend to fight against similarly skilled members of every [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] they encounter: Zoro fights other swordsmen, Sanji fights martial artists and Usopp fights projectile users, while Luffy inevitably ends up going after the [[Big Bad]] for that group.
** Lampshaded in one fight where Sanji matches up with a swordsman while Zoro finds himself squaring off with a martial artist.
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** The Straw Hat crew was challenged to a Davy Back Fight, where a pirate crew challenges another crew to a series of games with crew members as the prize. The Foxy Pirates used several underhand tricks to get the advantage but the Straw Hats naturally beat them.
** The CP9, confident in their abilities, made a game out of rescuing Robin where they divided five keys among them (one which unlocked Robin's cuffs) and had the Straw Hats scramble to defeat them and find the right one before Robin was permanently taken away. We all know how that turned out.
* Frequently used in ''[[Ranma ½]]'', but notably subverted and then averted when Ryoga learns the Shi Shi Hokodan technique. After being devastated by the technique, Ranma attempts to master it, but this proves impossible, as the Shi Shi Hokodan is powered by depression, and Ranma (despite all circumstances) is a pretty happy fellow compared to Ryoga, and certainly can't hope to match his misfortunes. Instead, he resorts to mastering a variant powered by his ''confidence''. This works for a time, but
* ''[[
* The ''[[Naruto]]'' character Kakashi Hatake is known as the "Copy-Ninja" for his ability to flawlessly copy an enemy's moves, using his Sharingan eye, ''even as they are performing them''.
** In one instance, the ninja he was copying was so surprised by Kakashi's perfect move for move copy that he stopped cold in the middle of his sharingan. ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Kakashi continued anyway and completed it despite having never seen it.]]''
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* During the Kyoto [[Story Arc]] in ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'', Saitou challenges Sanosuke to hand-to-hand combat (the latter's specialty), even going so far as to suspend [[Combat Pragmatist|fighting dirty]], in order to prove that Sano isn't on his or Kenshin's level (and consequently, a liability in the coming battles). Needless to say, it was a [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]], and not in Sano's favor.
* The favored method of the D'arby Bros. in ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' is to force the heroes to play an innocuous game (poker, a video game, or Rock-Paper-Scissors) and then cheat like hell at it to win (since, according to them, it isn't cheating if you don't get caught). Naturally, the heroes have to cheat right back while catching the D'arbys in the midst of their own cheating. The results were... [[Villainous Breakdown|memorable.]]
* [[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]:
* In [[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]], Judai manages to defeat a deck destruction expert by deck out.▼
** In the [[Filler Arc| Virtual Nightmare Arc]] of [[Yu-Gi-Oh! (anime)|the original anime]], Lechter uses Jinzo as his Deckmaster, which gives him a rather obvious advantage, making Jinzo's Trap-destruction effect one-sided and enabling him to use his own Traps - such as Gravity Bind - without penalty. Joey's solution to this is to use ''his'' Jinzo to get rid of Gravity Bind.
*** In fact, the whole Deckmaster System was this Trope. Noah and Big 5 thought these [[House Rules]] would give them an advantage, only for the heroes to adjust to it like a duck to water.
▲** In [[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]], Judai manages to defeat a deck destruction expert by deck out. He also beats a guy using a quiz deck with a quiz of his own.
* This is the tactic employed by the [[Anti-Villain|Anti-Spiral]] in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' - whenever the protagonists get a bigger mecha, they field an equally big one to try and instil despair into the protagonists in order to dampen their [[Hot-Blooded|hot blood]] powered Spiral Energy.
* When Kenshiro fights Shu in ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'', he managed to defeat him through a secret Hokuto Shinken technique that allows him to emulate Nanto Seiken.
** During his battle with Raoh, Toki artificially increases his strength to use his opponent's fighting style. Unfortunately he doesn't succeed.
* In ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS]]'' Nanoha defeats Teana using her own attack, Crossfire. She gets even in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid|Vi Vid]]'': during a 5-on-5 mock battle Nanoha and Teana use Starlight Breaker against each other, defeating most of their opponents in the process; in the end, Nanoha is shot down by her own trademark spell, while Teana (barely) remains standing.
== Comic Books ==
* In one famous story during the [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]] ("The Joker's Utility Belt!" ''Batman #73''), [[The Joker]] theorized that if a [[Utility Belt]] works so well for [[Batman]], it could work well for him too, and built his own. Unfortunately for him, Batman was a little ''too'' good at his own game, and [[Hoist by His Own Petard|managed to use Joker's belt to his own advantage]].
* In one ''[[Superman]]'' story set in [[The Silver Age of Comic Books| the Silver Age]], the hero decides to get even with Mr. Mxyzptlk for all the times Mxy drove him crazy by traveling to Mxy's Fifth Dimensional homeworld and driving ''him'' crazy. It was ''not'' a good time for Mxy, as he was running for mayor of his town, and ends up humiliated when trying to get rid of Supes using the same trick the hero used (getting him to say [[Sdrawkcab Name| "manrepus"]], his name spelled backwards) [[Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better| doesn't work]]. Once Mxy has learned his lesson, Superman leaves on his own by saying "Le-Lak".<ref>The "joke" of course, being that Kal-El is Superman's actual name.</ref>
== Fan
* In the story ''Team Probable'' from the ''[[Kim Possible]]'' fic series ''[[All Things Probable]]'', Team Possible end up falling victim to this trope when they face their evil gender-flipped doppelgängers, the titular Team Probable. Unfortunately, they’re able to stall Team Possible long enough to succeed in their tasks. And yes, they have their own computer hacker.
* The final battle of ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: Curse of the Black Pearl''. In order to even the odds between himself and the cursed undead pirates, Captain Jack Sparrow picks up a gold piece from the cursed treasure trove, transforming into an [[Nigh Invulnerability|immortal]] undead pirate himself, allowing him to more easily buy time until the curse is broken and the evil pirates are rendered killable
* [[Arnold Schwarzenegger|Dutch]] uses stealth tactics to defeat the [[Predator]].
** In ''Predator 2'', Harrigan kills the Predator with its own disc weapon.
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* In the [[Honor Harrington]] books, after repeatedly suffering losses due to Havenite deep raids, Manticore's reconstituted Eighth Fleet is tasked with doing the same right back.
== Live
* Since July 2005, when the first [[Formula One]] driver was a guest on ''[[Top Gear]]'', none had cracked [[Badass Driver|the Stig's]] record in the Suzuki Liana, and notably, only one actually took the same line the Stig takes going around the track (though it's speculated that the rainy weather was what handicapped him). Then Rubens Barrichello comes on the show, takes the same line as the Stig, and ''beats his record by a tenth of a second''.
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* On ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', this is now Peter's new strategy thanks to the [[Discard and Draw]] ability that he regains after losing his original ability and taking the ability-granting formula.
== Music ==
* [[Madonna]]'s single "Material Girl" is about a woman who gladly admits to being a [[Gold Digger]], but now is starting to realize, as the final stanza states, that "experience has made me rich, and now they're after me!"
== Professional Wrestling ==
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== Tabletop Games ==
* [[Averted]] in [[Dungeons
== Video Games ==
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** ''Metroid Prime'' also features Space Pirates who wield copies of one of your weapons and are only vulnerable to the same weapon they use.
** Also, in ''Metroid Prime'' the fight with the Metroid Prime's exoskeleton form can only be damaged by attacking it with the weapon that corresponds to its current colour and attack pattern. What's more, Metroid Prime always needs Phazon weaponry to finish it off, which it always gives you in some way or another, be it via puddles, projectiles, or injecting you with the crap.
* Some of the more recent [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] [[Wrestling Game
** Swanton Bomb nothing. Have Show or Andre the Giant steal Rey Misterio's
** Or on the other side of the gamut, playing Rey Mysterio and having him do a Tombstone Piledriver on the Undertaker.
* In ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' games, the titular character gains the abilities of the Robot Masters that he defeats, which are typically useful against another Robot Master. However, in ''[[Mega Man 2]]'', Metal Man is particularly weak to his own weapon; two shots on Hard mode will take him out.
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** There's also B Bunny, a rabbit type boss in ''Wario Land 2'' and 3 that has to be beaten at a variant of either basketball or football (soccer in the US), by using the boss as the ball. While the boss is trying to use Wario as the ball instead.
*** In case that was difficult to explain, see the end of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpp59VRwhZE&feature=related this] video.
** Speaking of Wario, he'll try doing this to ''you'' when you fight him at the end of ''[[Super Mario Land 2:
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', this is often reversed, with boss fights designed to use players' abilities against them. [http://www.wowwiki.com/Herald_Volazj Herald Volazj] in Anh'Kahet is one such boss, who splits the party and forces each player to fight clones of the others. A similar effect is used by Valkyr Heralds in Icecrown Citadel, who spawn copies of randomly chosen raid members that everyone must fight. Perhaps the most literal use of this, however, is in the Trial of the Crusader, whose third boss fight consists of a group of PvP opponents that behave as much like opposing players as it's possible for the game's AI to simulate. For example, crowd control abilities, normally useless on bosses, suddenly become mandatory.
* In ''[[Pokémon]]'', several types are weak to themselves, and in some cases, that is the only thing that is super effective. As an example, Dragon-type Pokemon are weak to Ice- and Dragon-type attacks. However, later games in the series introduce two Water/Dragon-type Pokemon, Palkia and Kingdra. The Water type cancels out the Ice-type weakness, and the Dragon type cancels all of Water-type's weaknesses, meaning that the only easy way to take one of these down is to
** The move Mirror Move allows the user to use the move just used by the opponent, and the move Transform literally allows Pokémon to beat the opponent at their own game, as the [[Ditto Fighter|Transforming]] Pokémon gains access to the target's typing, stats, and moves. To a lesser extent, the move Role Play can change the user's ability to that of the target.
* Averted in ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'': a mage duel with the final boss is impossible to win even if you cheat to get so high level the XP meter refuses to register more. Instead, you can defeat him by: beating him with something, having your buddies beat him, talking him into surrendering, talking him into suicide, nullifying him out of existance with sheer force of will, or even killing yourself.
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* Subverted in [[Hype the Time Quest]], the Final Boss, Barnak, has a "Smart Tornado" that follows the character. You can use this to your advantage by getting Barnak in between you and the tornado. It isn't very effective, though, and is absolutely not necessary, but fun.
* In ''[[Red Steel]]'' (the first), your character proceeds through each level with the usual assortment of FPS firearms. The [[Boss Battle]] of each level, however, is inevitably a swordfight, requiring you to put away your guns and use your blade instead.
* ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl'' has a boss named Duon that has a melee-attacking side and a projectile-throwing side. The blog notes that it's best to match him and fight close to it when the melee side is facing you, and keep your distance from the projectile-throwing side.
* Subverted in ''[[Doom]]'', as the rocket-firing Cyberdemon actually takes less than normal damage from the rocket launcher, making it rather ineffective.<ref>To be specific, the rocket deals damage from both the impact and the explosion itself. The Cyberdemon is immune to splash damage, which means it only takes damage from the impact itself.</ref>
* The Prowler from ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood]]'', with his hooded robe and retractable switchblade, appears to be a Templar attempt to fight the Assassins with their own methods. In fact, the Multiplayer itself is this, being a training program used by the Templars in order to replicate Assassin techniques.
** This is solidified in ''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]'': One of the new enemy types is the Stalker, who can be dressed in white, appears out of friggin' nowhere and tries to shank you... just like you've been doing to countless Templars.
* In [[Pickory]], [[Unexpected Gameplay Change|one of the boss fights is actually a clone of KSpaceDuel]]. You get a ship which is identical to the boss in every way.
* A literal example: a team of ''[[League of Legends]]'' developers was beaten at ''League of Legends'' by a team of ''[[Heroes of Newerth]]'' developers, their [[Dueling Games|chief competitors]] in the market, which is doubly ironic because ''HoN'' is considered by many to have a higher skill cap, which ''LoL'' fans often vehemently deny.
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* In ''[[Sonic Colors]]'', the [[Final Boss]] uses Wisp powers against Sonic, who had been using them up to this point, complete with even having the same announcer.
* In the final battle of ''[[Kirby's Return to Dream Land]]'', {{spoiler|Magolor's second form and Soul form imitates the various [[Limit Break|Super Abilities]] used by Kirby as attacks after he [[Turns Red]].}}
* Vitally important in both the [[X-COM]] series and [[UFO:
* ''[[Resident Evil]]'' is a franchise notorious for two things, ravenous zombies and deadly traps. However, in the "Lost in Nightmares" DLC in the fifth game, losing their gear means Jill and Barry have to ''use'' the traps in order to fight the zombies, a rather ironic use of this trope. You can even off them with the notorious [[Descending Ceiling]] that once threatened to turn the heroine into [[Memetic Mutation| a "Jill Sandwich"]]!
== Web Original ==
* In [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9-faa56l-s this] followup to ''[[The Horribly Slow Murderer With the Extremely Inefficient Weapon]]'', Jack attempts this against the Ginosaji. {{spoiler|It backfires completely.}}
* ''[[Sandra and Woo]]'', when Michelle "as a good Christian", [http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2014/06/16/0590-michelle-makes-a-call/ decides] to defend Landon and Larisa from the Pharisee (Landon's mom).
{{quote|'''Michelle''': Fire with fire.
'''Zoey''': I don’t know if God is proud of you, but I am. }}
:* Zoey [http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2018/07/26/1007-words-of-wisdom/ vs. Sandra].
{{quote|'''Zoey''': If you dream of beating your nemesis with her own weapons, you better be prepared!}}
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Samurai Jack]]'':
**
** Played straight when Jack becomes a ninja to fight a group of ninja.
*
▲** Also don in an issue of Spider-Ham complete with lampshade hanging, Mooster Fantastic consult the hero's manual and find the proper tactic for dealing with evil counterparts, switching opponents!
* ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (animation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'' uses this in most episodes with Professor Nimnul as the villain. Most times that the Rescue Rangers go up against Nimnul, they end up turning his own inventions against him.
* In ''[[Asterix|The Twelve Tasks of Asterix]]'' they face a trial that the magic potion has no effect on... Bureaucracy! However, Asterix is smart enough to play the system against itself, causing enough chaos for the head of the place to just hand him the item to make him go away.
* [[South Park]]: Don't try to make Cartman regret his actions and behavior using a psychology approach.
* [[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]: Said word for word by Long Feng, but denied to Azula.
{{quote|'''Long Feng:''' You've beaten me at my own [[The Chessmaster|game]].
'''Azula:''' [[Magnificent Bastard|Don't flatter yourself]]. [[Xanatos Speed Chess|You were never even a player]]. }}
* The ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' episode "Mad Love" is known to contain one of the best [[Batman Gambit]]s the [[Trope Namer]] has ever pulled, tricking the Joker into saving him from certain-death by convincing Harley to call him and let him know she was about to succeed in a goal he would ''never'' allow anyone but himself to do.
** ''However'', it is rarely noted that Batman was captured in the first place when a sobbing Harley called Gordon, claiming the Joker was trying to kill her and offering to turn herself in if Batman came to meet her. He did so, and when the Joker - or rather, a robot that looked like him - showed up with a machine gun, seemingly confirming her story, the hero tackled her to shield her from the attack, only for Harley to jab him with a sedative. That's right, ''Harley fooled Batman with her own Batman Gambit!''
* ''[[Star Trek: Lower Decks]]'': Captain Freeman tricks Grand Nagus Rom (as in the ''ruler of the Ferengi'') into [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y2KOoa0VxU signing a contract without reading the fine print]. Rom is [[Graceful Loser|actually impressed by her ingenuity]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Badass]]
[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Badass]]
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