Flaw Exploitation: Difference between revisions

* Kirk [[I Shall Taunt You|taunted]] Khan in ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'' in order to get him to enter the Mutara Nebula, which gave Kirk the advantage and ultimately victory. The result is that Khan was undone by his own massive ego.

* Lampshaded during Sid's [[Evil Gloating]] in ''Jake Speed''

* A rare hero-on-hero case occurs in ''[[Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves]]''. Azeem, newly arrived in England, needs to turn toward Mecca to pray, but it's too cloudy for him to tell which direction it is. Rather pettily, Robin won't tell his friend which way is East until Azeem confesses the name of the woman he was imprisoned for loving.

* Loki's favourite tactic in ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]''. However, Tony realizing that he and Loki are [[Not So Different]] helped him figure out that Loki would sacrifice pragmatism for showmanship, which would end up biting Loki hard.

* Kivas Fajo uses this against Data in the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' episode "The Most Toys", while Data has a disruptor weapon pointed at him, convinced that Data will not fire it because he's programmed with a "fundamental respect for all life, and an inhibition against harming living beings". Subverted {{spoiler|in that Data ''does'' actually prepare to shoot, reasoning that killing Fajo would save more lives in the long run, and would have done so if he hadn't been beamed out of there in the nick of time. He then tells a near-lie to his commanding officer about it; he suggests that the disruptor may have discharged due to the transport. He never says that this is what happened, only that it is a possible explanation.}}

** Of course, this was only after Fajo had ''successfully'' used this against Data to get him to sit in his assigned chair by, ironically, threatening to kill the aforementioned Varria if he didn't comply, on the same hunch that Data's "fundamental respect for all life" [["Three Laws"-Compliant|wouldn't even let him allow someone to die, through his inaction]]. In case the above quote wasn't obvious, it was Fajo's killing of Varria at the end of the episode that prompted the subversion.

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', this is one of the Doctor's main tactics. He is ''repeatedly'' underestimated about how [[Let's Get Dangerous|dangerous]] (for those people, who don't ''know'' about him) or how [[Tranquil Fury|ruthless]] (for some who do) he can be, and he plays on this to [[Manipulative Bastard]] levels. That's only if everyone else involved isn't already scared stiff of him...

* This is par for the course in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''. Littlefinger is especially good at Flaw Exploitation, playing on the weaknesses and foibles of pretty much everybody; Eddard Stark (honor), Lysa Arryn (obsessive love), Robert Baratheon (impatience with the mundane issues of running a kingdom), Joffrey Baratheon (wanton cruelty), Tywin Lannister (pride)... and so many, many more. In fact the only person who might be better is Tyrion, who did most of the above as well as handling his sister Cersei (hunger for power,) his brother Jaime (fear of being betrayed by his lover,) Varys the Spider (multiple, delicately-balanced loyalties,) the Dornish royal family (collective thirst for revenge,) Pycelle (greed,) and even Littlefinger himself (reliance on people underestimating him.)

* In the [[Redwall]] series, badgers are known to be fiercely (perhaps feverishly) dedicated to [[Lawful Good|Justice and Good]] in general. ''Salamandastron'' has the [[Big Bad]] [[Lampshade Hanging|acknowledge this]] outright:

** Later in the story, the villains capture a pair of the Badger Lord's finest fighters and have fun messing with him over what they want for their hostages before making an impossible demand for the entire mountain fortress. They even give the badger a couple days to give his answer, knowing full well they plan to kill their hostages before the time elapses.

** {{spoiler|Fortunately for the two hostages, the series is prone to [[Take a Third Option|softening the consequences]] of such [[Debate and Switch|difficult choices]], and they end up surviving anyway. Partially this is because [[Badass Army|hares]] are invariably awesome in a pinch.}}

* In [[Aaron Allston]]'s ''[[Galatea in 2-D]]'', they know Kevin will come to the convention even when they are gunning for him, and he knows it, because he can't miss the chance to bask in the admiration.

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "[[The Phoenix on the Sword]] ", Ascalante gloats at how he will deal with the men who think he is their tool.

* In ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'', the titular pirates won't hurt orphans. Everyone seems to know this and use it to escape from them, even [[Modern Major-General]] Stanley.

'''Frederic'''. ''Yes, but it has got about, and what is the consequence? Every one we capture says he's an orphan. The last three ships we took proved to be manned entirely by orphans, and so we had to let them go. One would think that Great Britain's mercantile navy was recruited solely from her orphan asylums, which we know is not the case.'' }}

** That's just the best known one. The entire play is about this trope. For example: {{spoiler|Fredric's loyalty (by the pirates), the pirate's patriotism (by the police), Fredric's naivete (by Ruth), Stanley's patriotism (by the pirates)}}