Gambit Roulette: Difference between revisions

* Apparently, everything [[The Pendragon Adventure|Saint Dane]] does is part of his grand plan for Halla. A lot of which is manipulating Bobby (and Mark and Courtney) to do exactly what he wants them to do without realizing it. And then stepping in to show Bobby how horribly he's been defeated [[Hope Spot|just after he thought he won.]]

* Fortune Teller Shalice of ''[[The Pilo Family Circus]]'' demonstrates her understanding of the trope in this statement:

** One of her ''simplest'' manipulations involves watering the lawn in front of the Acrobats' tent; when one of them left the tent, he slips on the wet grass, and angrily blames [[Monster Clown|the pranksters in the Clown Division]]. He then steals a crate of fireworks to take revenge on the clowns, only to leave it by the Circus Funhouse, where one of the local dwarfs uses it as a target in a cigar-flicking game: the resulting explosion takes out half the funhouse, and forces the management to start relying on Shalice for help again. {{spoiler|Or at least, it ''should'' have.}}

* Revealed to be the entire point of the first two books in Sergei Lukyanenko's ''[[Night Watch]]'' series (Nightwatch and Daywatch respectively).

* This seems to be what Varys and Illyrio Mopatis are up to in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] when one character points out in ''Dance'' that they have been [[Gambit Speed Chess|changing the plan repeatedly]].

* Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's [[Liaden Universe]]: Aware of the Department of the Interior's machinations, Liaden's Scouts hatch a cunning plan: they will destroy the DoI from within by ''feeding Val Con yos'Phelium to it'' without giving him any forewarning or preparation, counting on his line's [[Weirdness Magnet]] nature to throw a monkeywrench into its schemes. Given the way [[There Are No Coincidences]] in the Liaden Universe, this effectively turns a Roulette Gambit ''into'' a [[Batman Gambit]].

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Wonderfalls]]'' has the same overarching theme, with God's big Rube Goldberg device.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in an episode of the (surprisingly good fun) 2000 series ''[[The Invisible Man (TV series)|The Invisible Man]]'' with a speech given by the hero to the recurring villain, at whose mercy he is. Having asked the villain to [[Just Shoot Him]] or at least knock him out and get on with whatever he wants to do, he launches into:

* Lampshaded by the National Security Advisor in the Season 4 finale of ''[[The West Wing]]'': the terrorists' entire plan to kidnap the daughter of the President of the United States hinged, first, on her taking some of her boyfriend's Ecstasy (which had been laced with GHB) and, second, on her deciding to use the bathroom in the club before leaving.

** Her point was actually that the crime, since it relied on those variables, probably wasn't the work of a master criminal or terrorist cell, but probably some opportunistic idiots. That made a lot more sense than the eventual resolution, and since Aaron Sorkin left the show before the cliffhanger was wrapped up, that might have been its intended conclusion.

*** In fact it is this precise detail (that Data, as an android, is literally incapable of blowing the ship up by accidentally pressing the wrong button) that sparks Geordi's suspicions about the "accident" in the first place and eventually leads to Fajo's plan being uncovered then ruined.

* [[Revenge (TV series)|Revenge]], on occaision. For example, Tyler's plan to break up Emily and Daniel would not have worked if Jack hadn't shown up or if Emily hadn't invited him in, things Tyler hadn't no control over. In fact, if that hadn't happened, the converstation would have gone like this:

Tyler: *dead man walking* }}

 

* Near the end of ''[[Walkyverse|It's Walky]]'', a [[We Can Rule Together]] speech by Penny and (presumably correct) extrapolation by Alan reveal that Dargon founded SEMME in the ''seventies'' specifically to gather abductees and Martian technology, the former to be given just this [[We Can Rule Together]] speech, the latter in anticipation of SEMME's eventual disbandment and the resultant scattering of Martian technology to military centers around the world. The latter event, by the way, was ''thirty years later'' and contingent on an HA caper they couldn't possibly have predicted, itself following his ''death and resurrection''. If either Dargon or Penny had lived long enough, we might have seen what, exactly, they planned to do with the world's military infrastructure destroyed.

** The trope was actually ''parodied'' near the beginning of the strip:

'''Head Alien''': [dejected] I was careless. }}

* The entire Bird "conspiracy" in the webcomic ''[[Kevin and Kell]]''. Too long to explain, but it implies giving somebody super powers, [[Time Travel]], The Y2K bug, and locking an odd couple in a room.

* Freefall: Sam Starfall's favorite master plan is to simply imply he HAS a master plan, then let his victims make up the details....

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', Magus needs Ellen to zap Elliot with her [[Gender Bender]] ray. His plans range from the "slightly implausible" (he orchestrated the entire sequence of events that led up to Ellen's "[[Opposite Sex Clone|birth]]") to the completely ridiculous (planning to amplify Ellen's desire for pepper in order to make her sneeze and accidentally zap Elliot).

** Chaos has more of these (and in fact was involved in some of Magus'). Justified in her case, since she's practically omniscient and ''[[Prescience Is Predictable|bored]]''. She wants things as random as possible because its more fun that way.

 

* Played with in [[The Defrosters]]. In episode 9, Pixel Girl implies that she is working on a [[Plan]] to stop Pixel Boy from playing World of Warcraft. She and James even mention TV Tropes as they debate the differences between a Gambit Roulette and a [[Xanatos Gambit]].

* Obscure example, but in [[Avatar: The Abridged Series|GanXingba]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhVPxYCXeRA Avatar: TAS], a comment is made mocking Zhao's- and Light's (Death Note) -ability to have plans that rely on perfect timing and actions they shouldn't be able to see coming.

'''Zhao:''' Of course I can. I went to the Light Yagami School of Strategy. I can practically predict the future. }}

* Mentioned extensively in [http://www.cracked.com/article_16848_6-most-pointlessly-elaborate-movie-murder-plots.html Cracked.com's 6 Most Pointlessly Elaborate Movie Murder Plots].

** Sideshow Bob in "Funeral For A Fiend" does this. He builds a fake restaurant and broadcasts commercials for its grand opening solely for luring the Simpsons (and no one else) there. ''Then'' he purposely misquotes Shakespeare in order for Lisa to correct him so he could pretend to look it up on Wikipedia in order for the laptop to overheat and explode, leading to his capture. ''Then'' at his trial he relies on the chance that Bart will snatch away his nitroglycerine so he could fake a heart attack and allow his father to inject him with a drug that simulates death. ''Then'' he manages to undergo a funeral without an autopsy or any embalming process, and gets his family members to make Bart feel guilty enough about his death in order for Bart to enter the funeral home when no one else is around, and make peace with his "corpse" before it is cremated.

* Subverted in one episode of ''[[Teamo Supremo]]'': the main characters are stumped as to how the seemingly unrelated robberies committed by "Mr. Vague" contribute to his ingenious plan.

* An example (but certainly not the only one) where this is used for comedic effect: In the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' cartoon "Fool Coverage", Daffy Duck (after much persuasion) sells Porky Pig an insurance policy that will pay him a million dollars if he gets a black eye. However, after Porky signs, he's informed that the policy has some fine print - the payout can only occur if the policyholder receives a black eye as a result of a stampede of wild elephants running through his house between 3:55 and 4 PM on the Fourth of July during a hailstorm. When this improbable sequence of events actually occurs (right after Porky signs up), Daffy makes up an additional clause on the spot that requires that a baby zebra be part of the stampede - and guess what runs through the house immediately thereafter.

* In ''[[Justice League]]'', after Brainiac has been revealed to have been living in Lex Luthor for years, he states that he's been manipulating Lex Luthor into manipulating everything else so that he, and not Lex, could implant his mind into a duplicate of Amazo (or rather, a "more suitable body). Really, he just installed a backup of his program into Lex and rolled with whatever came his way. This turns into Gambit Speed Chess when Lex takes advantage of being merged with an immortal robot in order to try and become a techno-organic god.