Indy Ploy: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

The favorite [[Plan]] (or rather, lack thereof) of almost every [[Action Hero|action]] and [[Idiot Hero]] in existence.

*** Two particularly interesting tactics of his; first, to allow himself to go into a daze and let instinct keep him from getting hit (didn't work because he couldn't attack without breaking the trance) and throwing his fists against the wall (they're made of rubber) to let them ricochet unpredictably.

** When Luffy ''does'' have a plan, it usually amounts to "let's beat up the bad guy!" Anything else, he makes up as he goes (or has to be planned by a subordinate, usually Robin or Nami, or occasionally Usopp.)

** And a lot of the time it turns out his plan was no more elaborate than 'jump in and hope for the best.'

* Use of the Indy Ploy is the totality of the Saotome School of Martial Art in ''[[Ranma ½]]''.

* ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' makes thorough use of the Indy Ploy - Gold in particular worships at its altar. His are so blatant that mental objections fill the panel when he acts like he planned it all along. It's hard to judge, given the nature of her intellect, whether some of Sapphire's more clever victories (Roxanne, Brawly, Ark @ Mt. Chimney) qualify as this or something between this and [[Xanatos Speed Chess]].

* This pretty much exemplifies [[Inuyasha]]'s entire approach to fighting. He even learns Bakuryuuha totally without meaning to by reacting instinctively. His unconventional fighting style is commented on by other characters on more than one occasion.

** Renji has shown shades of this on occasion with varying degrees of success.

* In one of the episodes of the original 1972 ''[[Lupin III]]'' TV series, the Tokyo police department gets a supercomputer that is programmed to predict Lupin's every move. It does so extremely successfully, until Lupin realizes the way to beat it is to throw out all his plans and act completely on whim.

* These are the essence of how Yami Yugi wins all his duels in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]''. His present-day counterpart's plans have much more forethought, however. The protagonists of the [[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX|sequel]] [[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's|series]], on the other hand, exhibit no planning whatsoever, making turnarounds on a single card more often than not.

** No planning? That may be true for Judai, but Yusei? Really?

* Goku from ''[[Dragon Ball]]'', especially during his assault on the main Red Ribbon Army base. His plan could be best described as "keep hitting anyone who attacks until you run out of targets". Meanwhile the rest of the cast were busily trying to put together a rescue team and trying to plan out how they'd save him.

* Judau Astar from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ]]'' and Uso Ebbing from ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam]]'' are masters of this. They make up new plans as they go along, using strategies more experienced or more crazy pilots never think of.

** To quote the manga: "Plan A is 'Take it as it comes,' Plan B is 'First come, first served,' and Plan C is 'Wing it.'"

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Let's face it, this is generally the M.O of just about every comic book superhero, since supervillains have a tendency to attack without warning at any time. But while most of them do at least fight according to plans thought out in training or, on the rare occasion, when they're the ones tracking a bad guy instead of the other way around, the Avengers change their line-up so frequently that they can't even plan for their own team, let alone whatever they're up against. Winging it is what they do best.

* [[Batman]], despite his reputation for [[Crazy Prepared|intense planning]], actually owes most of his victories for [[Awesome By Analysis|noticing every detail of his situation]] and then making a plan to take advantage of it on the spot.

** However, this may be more a case of [[Xanatos Speed Chess]] in Batman's case

* Similarly, his sometime-colleague [[Doctor Strange]] frequently goes to cases without much preparation, expecting that he'll be quick-witted enough (or have the right amulet, or know the right spell) to deal with the situation as it develops.

* In comparison to [[Captain America (comics)|Steve Rogers]]' [[Crazy Prepared]]-ness, [[Bucky Barnes]], after assuming the mantle of [[Captain America (comics)]] showed off his tactical sensibilities through his extensive reliance on plans made on the fly.

 

* The ''[[Firefly]]'' fanfic ''[[Forward]]'' continues the original series' fine tradition of Mal making it up as he goes. In the "Condor" story arc, it gets lampshaded by Zoe, who is relieved when Mal says their harrowing escape is being made up on the spot, and in the "Third Interlude" chapter, Jayne pulls an Indiana Jones-style vehicle boarding where he's improvising as he goes.

* Plenty of these in ''[[With Strings Attached]]''; indeed, the second half of the Fourth Movement is ''made'' of these.

 

== [[Film]] ==

** Notably, at one point in ''[[Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull|The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]'' it doesn't work, where Indy tries to jump onto a truck and misses.

{{quote|'''Indy:''' Damn, I thought that was closer.}}

{{quote|'''Mutt Williams / {{spoiler|Henry Jones III}}''': What's he gonna do now?

'''Mary Williams / {{spoiler|Marion Ravenwood}}''': I don't think he plans that far ahead.

'''Indiana Jones''': Scooch over, will you, {{spoiler|Son?}} }}

{{quote|"I'd cover my ears if I were you!"}}

* Han Solo (also [[Harrison Ford]]) from ''[[Star Wars]]'' survives mainly by thinking very, very fast. And when that doesn't work, running away even faster.

** Leia comes close. "Into the garbage chute, flyboy!"

* Played with and Lampshaded in ''[[Harry Potter (film)|Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2]]'': After Voldemort learns they're hunting horcruxes Hermione says they need a new plan. Harry's response? "Hermione, since when have any of our plans ever worked?"

* In the ''[[Mission: Impossible (film)||Mission Impossible]]'' films, whenever something goes awry with plan, the improvision is usually high in the [[HSQ]].

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series. {{spoiler|Mat due to way his luck-tweaking ability works, he does poorly at games of planning than of chance. For this reason, most of his better plans by default fall under this category.}}

*** This, apparently, is how good serial television works.

** Lord Vetinari of Ankh-Morpork seems to combine Indy Ploys and [[Xanatos Roulette]]s to devastating effect. It was once stated that, since you can't plan for every eventuality, Vetinari doesn't.

* Commissar [[Ciaphas Cain]], [[Fake Ultimate Hero|Hero of the Imperium]] in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'', often finds himself running headlong into situations he certainly shouldn't be running into in a universe as casually lethal as Warhammer 40K. He usually fights and flees his way out of these situations by simply making things up as he goes along, improvising weapons and tactics from his surroundings and from simple ingenuity. In one case, he halts a mob of bloodthirsty, rioting Imperial Guardsmen by jumping on a table, pointing at someone, and ordering them to get a mop, as the mess they had left was simply ''deplorable''. <small>"Whatever they'd been expecting me to say or do, this certainly wasn't it."</small>

** And, by extension, Cain's literary predecessor, Harry Paget [[Flashman]], who lies, flatters, and flees his way through adventure after adventure, escaping by dint of sheer luck and the skin of his teeth.

{{quote|They debated long on what was to be done, but they could think of no way of getting rid of Smaug- which had always been a weak point in their plans, as Bilbo felt inclined to point out.}}

 

* ''[[Psych]]'': Pretty much the concept of the entire series

** The Old and the Restless

{{quote|'''Henry''': My son, the super sleuth, can't even get himself access into an old folks' home.

'''Shawn''': No, no, no, Dad. You have no idea what we're up against, okay? I tried everything. I tried the whole "I'm a travelling doula" bit, the "dingo ate my baby" routine, "hiding Gus in a sack" trick, which never fails... }}

{{quote|'''Henry''': Alright, look. What the hell are you guys doing here?

'''Gus''': This is the part where you get blindsided with Plan B. It's kind of fun when it's not happening to me. }}

* When he originally came up with the idea for ''[[Mission: Impossible]]'', creator Bruce Geller imagined EVERY episode's plan to go wrong at some point, leaving the IMF team to work from scratch. In the actual series, only a few Indy Ploy moments come up, mostly in the "Personal story" episodes.

** In the 1988 relaunch of the series, the pilot episode featured John DeLancie as an assassin who intentionally used Indy Ploys: he never chose how he'd kill his target until the very last moment, improvising his plans as he went along, specifically to not be predictable.

* ''[[Frasier]]'''s many convoluted [[Farce]]-structured episodes often involved ''extremely'' fast-paced [[Disaster Dominoes]], [[A Simple Plan|Simple Plans,]] or [[Fawlty Towers Plot]]s that required the characters to frantically come up with new ideas as they were swept along with the action to keep their plans from descending into havoc. Naturally, because it was a comedy where no one gets killed, this only made the hijinks and misunderstandings infinitely worse, as [[Too Many Cooks]] spoil the broth, and they had to inform everyone else about all their new schemes and lies in addition to the list of volatile situations they were juggling. One would expect they wished twitter existed in the '90s, but on the other hand, they could often be downright ingenious at improv...

 

 

* [[Truth in Television]] for every [[Tabletop RPG|GM]] who's ever [[Schrödinger's Gun|avoided]] [[Off the Rails|railroading]].

** Most players too. Your plan will go horribly wrong at the first step, or you don't even bother with a plan in the first place; either way, you'll end up winging things.

** Also the standard plan for most Shadowrunners In-and-Out of Universe.

* Adorjan's Excellency in ''[[Exalted]]'' specifically can't enhance anything that's planned out in advance, meaning that anyone using said Excellency has to use these on a regular basis.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

{{spoiler|(''cue Ubercharge and the BLU team getting their asses handed to them'')}} }}

** This phenomenon happens quite a bit in-game as well, since people are rather unpredictable, you finish just about every round discovering new ways to play.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** Subverted later on when she implies that [[Chessmaster|pretty much everything that's happened for a little over half the comic all part of her plan]]

* This trope is precisely why Rumisiel gets [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Crowning Moments Of Awesome]] in ''[[Misfile]]''. Even when his schemes work there is still an element of [[What Were You Thinking?]].

* Meta example with ''[[Homestuck]]'' - [[Andrew Hussie]] had a basic idea for the characters and plot when he began it, but most of what you see and read was made up along the way. ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'' takes this even further, having had only its setting and main character designed in advance, and the rest made up by Hussie and the readers.

** In-universe example with [[The Lancer|Dave]]'s approach to handling his [[Time Master]] powers:

* Xeus from ''[[The Beast Legion]]'' makes such a move when he takes on a plant mongrel in [http://www.thebeastlegion.com/issue-03-page-37surprise-counter-attack/ this page].

* In ''[[Freefall]]'', this is Sam Starfall's stock in trade. After all, [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ "Improvise is one of the few battle plans that survives contact with the enemy."]

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* In the [[Whateley Universe]], most of the fights that Team Kimba get into fall into this trope, since so far they haven't planned out any of the major confrontations that have dropped onto them. Chaka lives by this trope, when she's not actually thinking things through enough to be [[The Chessmaster]].

* [[Leeroy Jenkins Video|LEEEEROY JENKINS!!!]] is an example of the '[[What Were You Thinking?]]' variety. While the video was staged, along with Leeroy's blinding incompetence, the creators said it was based on a real (although presumably less over-the-top) event.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

'''Krabs''': Or else what?

'''Plankton''': Uh, I don't know. I didn't think I'd get this far. }}

* A pariculary memorable conversation on ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]]'', when Mira is hitching a ride inside Buzz's head:

{{quote|'''Mira''': What now?

'''Phineas''': You know, willy-nilly barging ''is'' a plan of sorts.

'''Candace''': *[[Oh Crap|looks terrified]]* }}

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

** Not entirely uncommon among serial authors. Often, one will have the big events plotted out (character deaths, villain appearances), but will come up with the intervening comics as he or she makes them.

* A few real books were written this way (the author just making it up as he goes along in one draft with no revisions), such as the novel ''Hawaii''.

** [[Rumiko Takahashi]] never really plans ahead. She just comes up with the story by a chapter by chapter basis.

* This was actually how American football's signature feature, the forward pass, came into being. In the early 20th Century, many colleges were considering abandoning Walter Camp's football code in favor of rugby. In a game between the University of North Carolina and the University of Georgia, a punter threw the ball towards a teammate down field while trying to avoid getting creamed by an oncoming rush. The receiver made a 70-yard touchdown (including the pass) to win the game for the UNC Tarheels, 7-0. This was witnessed by one Johnny Heisman, who related the story to Camp. Seeing a way to open up the game and make it more exciting to fans, he agreed to legalize the forward pass. Along with the abolition of the Flying Wedge Formation and the adoption of heavy protective padding, changes designed to fix the ''other'' problem of players being killed and crippled, the forward pass is credited with saving the game of American football.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Improvised Index]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:The Plan]]

[[Category:Plots]]