Out-Gambitted: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

This trope specifically has three parts:

Sometimes this situation [[The Chessmaster]] vs. a superior Chessmaster, and sometimes it's [[Smug Snake|somebody who only]] [[Big Bad Wannabe|thinks he's the Chessmaster]] vs. [[Magnificent Bastard|someone who actually is]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', {{spoiler|Hohenheim manages to completely undo Father's transformation of everyone in Amestris into a philosopher's stone using a transmutation circle ''made from the shadow of the solar eclipse''. And this was possible because Father's own [[Evil Plan]] required that solar eclipse. Furthermore, Hohenheim's allies undo the seal Father put on everyone else's alchemy by using ''Father's own transmutation circle''.}}

* Dio to Jotaro in ''[[Jojo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' part 3: Dio launched a barrage of knives against Jotaro, which made him fall quite a long distance. Knowing Jotaro was probably [[Not Quite Dead]] because [[No One Could Survive That]], he decided to [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|chop his head off with a Stop sign]]. Too bad that's just what Jotaro wanted, because he got a free hit while Dio was closing in.

** Although Dio would've gotten Jotaro, who couldn't move as the result of stopping his own heart for too long. Jotaro was only saved because Polnareff took that opportunity to try and kill Dio, which gave Jotaro just enough time to recover.

* This pretty much describes every match in ''[[Akagi]]''; Akagi manipulates everyone around him (even people who are watching the entire [[Mahjong]] games from the outside) as they think they have him cornered.

* ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'', during the hunter exams. Gon had a choice between two candles that he had to keep burning in a windy room longer than the villain's candle, he picks the long one (both are rigged to burn quickly) but because it burns so strong he is able to leave it unattended to run over and blow out the villain's candle.

* Shikamaru Nara from ''[[Naruto]]'' pulls this off quite a lot. All of his battles involve him making his opponent so sure of their victory that they inevitably screw up and fall to his masterfully laid [[Batman Gambit]].

* In ''[[Death Note]]'', this is how Near & Mello beat Light, although Light also seemed to have become stupider in the second season.

* Happened in ''[[Liar Game]]'', where Akiyama was out-gambitted by [[Magnificent Bastard|Yokoya]], who walked away with a huge amount of the winnings and left him in debt. However, {{spoiler|Nao [[Hannibal Lecture|pointed out]] to Yokoya that even though he had won, he still lost the game, because he went back on his philosophy of complete dominance and instead turned to common cheating and stealing and three of his teammates had betrayed him.}}

* In ''[[Bleach]]'', {{spoiler|[[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|Shinji]] explains his reversing ability to [[Magnificent Bastard|Aizen]], but leaves out the fact that he can reverse each of the three dimensions individually. Just when Aizen has him "figured out" Shinji reverses only front and back, allowing [[Knight Templar Big Brother|Hitsugaya]] to [[It's Personal|stab Aizen]] from behind, which he never suspects because he's not reversed in the other two directions. Cut to Aizen revealing that he's been using [[Master of Illusion|Kyoka Suigetsu]] this whole time, and just made Hitsugaya [[Ironic Hell|stab Hinamori]].}}

* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', Negi out gambits {{spoiler|Kurt Godel}} by simply not revealing that [[Didn't See That Coming|he has an informant from the future]], which allows him to guess his rival's goals.

* In the ''[[Bokurano]]'' anime, {{spoiler|Koeyemshi}} is trying to get {{spoiler|Kana}} to be the next pilot by putting mental pressure on her and threatening to force {{spoiler|her brother Jun}} to do it instead if she refuses. However, {{spoiler|Jun}} asks {{spoiler|his friend Youko}} to help, and she stops {{spoiler|Koeyemshi}} by {{spoiler|shooting him to death.}}

** One this is done, Balalaika [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|uses the guise of her new alliance to murder the heads of the entire rest of the council]], throwing the entire Tokyo underworld into all-out chaos and giving Hotel Moscow carte blanche to move in and seize control. Which had been Balalaika's objective all along, and she outplayed at least three other factions in the process. Once she realized that Balalaika had won the war, and {{spoiler|Yukio's bodyguard and most faitful supporter Ginji died in a duel with Revy}}, Yukio chose to {{spoiler|commit suicide rather than giving Balalaika the ultimate laugh}}. It wasn't better that Washimine clan itself suffered a civil war between those who supported Yukio and those who supported [[Complete Monster|Chaka]], which finished when {{spoiler|Chaka was brutally slain by Ginji for kidnapping Yukio, beating her bloody, and intending to sell her into sex slavery}}.

* In the case of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', we have numerous plots going along side-by-side. We have Seele who's trying to manipulate everyone into activating Instrumentality, we have Gendo trying to reunite with his wife Yui, the angels who plan on reuniting with Adam, and later Ritsuko who plots to kill Gendo and stop his plans due to how he used her. The one who emerges on top? ''Rei Ayanami'', who undermines Gendo after he sees an end to both the Angel's plot (sort of) and Ritsuko's plot. However, it's debatable that Yui Ikari planned everything out from the very beginning in a huge plan, but that's up for debate. It's Eva, after all...

** Zero's first battle with [[The Baroness|Princess Cornelia]]. With Zero playing the "Alice Role."

** Zero's altercation with Mao (both times actually.)

** Zero leading the Black Knights against Xing-ke. Once again Zero is Alice.

* In ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'' a hooker connects the dots and realizes that Johan Liebert has been committing a slew of murders for the past few years, so she attempts to blackmail him with this information. Johan, being able to be both a [[Complete Monster]] AND [[Magnificent Bastard]], had planned on this possibility and planted his hitman, Roberto, to act as her "boyfriend" days, maybe even weeks, ahead of time. Needless to say, it doesn't go well for her when she pulls a gun on Johan.

** Another one happens at the end of the sort-of prequel [[Oriko Magica]]. {{spoiler|So Kyouko, Mami and Homura have managed to kill Witch!Kirika and corner Oriko, and Homura finishes her off via destroying her Soul Gem ''after'' Kyoko impales her with her spear? No, [[Plucky Girl|Oriko]] won't be stopped by that. She will use her last moments to take a shard of Kirika's witch body and shoot it out of the witch's barrier... and fulfill her original "mission": killing Madoka Kaname via getting her [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice]] with that shard.}} Oy vey.

 

 

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[Doctor Strange]] & [[Doctor Doom]]: Triumph and Torment'' '''is''' this trope. In the end of a rollercoaster of magical action and double, and double double crossings, the reader is left just as much in the dark as the main protagonist of the book, Doctor Strange, whether or not [[Chessmaster|Doctor Doom]] planned everything the way it went or not..

* This happened once in the ''[[Sleepwalker]]'' comics when the Kingpin was confronted with a rival crime boss named Crimewave, who was planning to usurp his position. The Kingpin's response was to manipulate Sleepwalker and [[Spider-Man]] into capturing Crimewave for him after luring Crimewave's disgruntled [[The Dragon|second-in-command]] into his service. Crimewave has never appeared again in large part because no writer has ever been interested in using him, but this troper's [[Fanon]] has it that Crimewave met with an "accident" in prison for pissing off the Fat Man.

* Jadina from [[Comic Book/Les Legendaires Les|Légendaires]] is able to outgambit the [[God of Evil]] Anathos during the Anathos Cycle in a quite impressive way: {{spoiler|She first let her [[Dark Action Girl]] Tenebris get captured so she can lead the Castlewar, Anathos' mobile fortress, into an Ambush inside a Canyon. Anathos sees through the trap and replies by forcing Jadina's Legendaries to split up when they attempt to infiltrate the Castlewar and having them forced to fight against his [[The Psycho Rangers|Hellions]] while he gets Jadina for interrogation, as he deduced this infiltration attempt was a diversion for a bigger plan. Turns out he's right, but finds that out too late: the Legendaries are able to defeat their Hellion counterparts, and both them and Jadina are able to distract him long enough for the plan to works. The Elves then open several portails between the place and their world's sea, filling the Canyon with water and thus making the Castlewar's weaponry unfunctional while they attacks it with their ships. When Anathos tries riposting by sending his [[Airborne Mook|Vulturs]] attack the ships, the Pirahni and humans arrive with flying machines and rides, quickly destroying them. Even the other Legendaries are impressed to see Jadina planned this all along.}}

 

== Film ==

* The ending of ''[[Dirty Rotten Scoundrels]]'' {{spoiler|has both male leads be out gambitted by who they thought was their mark}}.

* ''[[Rock and Roll High School]]'' marks possibly the only time where one gambit (Riff Randall waiting for three days to be first in line to get tickets to the Ramones concert and getting a hundred tickets for her friends and her music teacher) is Out Gambitted by another gambit ([[Complete Monster|Mrs. Togar]] donating her ticket and her best friend's ticket to charity), which is then Out Gambitted by the [[Gambit Roulette]] that was Riff Randall's [[Take a Third Option|knowledge of the Ramones]] getting her ''and'' her best friend a free ticket each to the same concert. (Granted, [[Didn't See That Coming|neither party knew about the giveaway]] until Riff and her friend got the tickets from it.) Riff's words to Mrs. Togar? "Screw you, Mrs. Togar, we made it to the concert anyway!" And those words were [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|broadcast over the radio]], no less!

* ''[[Batman Returns]]'': The Penguin orchestrates a crime wave to make the people of Gotham lose faith in the current administration. He has one of his mooks abduct the Mayor's infant child in broad daylight, only to show up himself and "rescue" it. He wins over the people's sympathies with his pitiful life story. He frames Batman for murder, and uses a remote controlled Batmobile to cut a path of destruction, making it seem as if Batman had finally snapped. All to instigate a recall election and get himself elected Mayor. But he didn't count on the [[Memetic Mutation|Goddamned Batman]] having a disk drive in his [[Cool Car]] to record the Penguin's rants and [[Engineered Public Confession|broadcast them at his next speech]]:

{{quote|'''The Penguin:''' "You gotta admit, I've played this stinking city like a harp from Hell!"}}

* ''[[House on Haunted Hill]]''. To say any more would ruin it.

* The climax of ''[[Bill and Teds Bogus Journey]]'' involves this.

* In ''[[Diggstown]]'', Bruce Dern gets out gambitted by James Woods in an overtly crooked boxing wager. Realizing that he'd been bested by a superior conman, Dern shrugs and says, "You beat me fair and square!"

* The finale of Krystof Kieslowski's ''White'' is a beautiful example of this.

* The finale of ''Hunting Humans'' is just one borderline ludicrous example of this after another. Let's see:

** Also, almost anything Dumbledore does, {{spoiler|from trusting Snape and having him as the mole, to having Snape kill him,}} to leaving Harry at the Dursley's, to giving Hermione the time-turner, to having the Tri-Wizard Tournament, to going to The Cave in book six. He is [[The Chessmaster]].

*** The Triwizard Tournament wasn't his plan though - {{spoiler|Voldemort taking Harry's blood was just a lucky bonus from something that went horribly wrong seeing as how he had no idea Moody was a fake until the climax of the book.}}

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] King Pryderi of the ''[[Prydain Chronicles]]'' makes an [[Deal with the Devil|alliance]] with resident [[Evil Overlord]] Arawn in an attempt to conquer Prydain and put an end to the infighting and bickering between lords that has long plagued his land. After he has conquered Prydain he planned to make Arawn into his servant by virtue of his superior army. Too bad for him, Arawn is well-known and feared for his evil trickery and, too late, the King realizes that the Death Lord has [[Unwitting Pawn|outmanuevered him.]] Unsurprisingly, he doesn't live long after.

** In ''[[X Wing Series|Isard's Revenge]]'', Ysanne Isard neatly outgambits her clone and the New Republic. One of the things she does is set up a lab at a site she knows the New Republic will attack, one that involves research into the next generation of superweapons. The New Republic instantly seizes on this as justification for mounting a more vigorous campaign against this particular splinter of the Empire, while the splinter protests that they'd never heard of this lab until the New Republic attacked them, it must have been forged. A clueless pilot even wonders what good it would have done the New Republic to set up a fake Death Star lab. The end result is that both sides look worse due to the [[Golden Mean Fallacy]], and despite trying to trick each other they do pretty much exactly what she wanted. Until...

*** At the very end of the novel, Isard herself falls victim to this trope. {{spoiler|Her plan was to steal the newly-repaired Super Star Destroyer ''Lusankya'' from under the collective nose of the New Republic fleet. Unfortunately, New Republic Intelligence agent Iella Wessiri, Booster Terrik, and Mirax Terrik Horn (with the assistance of a fourth which will remain unnamed) managed to anticipate her action, in part thanks to two droids escaping her clutches earlier. Both of Isard's boarding parties were knocked out via atmospheric pressure, and Isard herself was going to be tried for piracy before a military tribunal, avoiding a public trial that would only have helped her. She avoids that fate only by attempting to attack Iella, who fatally shoots her.}}

*** Which is to say Thrawn figured out the real target was Bilbringi and planned accordingly. But he ''wasn't'' counting on the [[Neutral No Longer|Smugglers' Alliance]] to join the war and, assuming that the Republic was striking at Tangrene, plan their ''own'' attack on Bilbringi which just happened to coincide with the Republic's offensive and helped turn certain defeat into a crushing victory. A case of a cunning plan being defeated by a cunning-er plan [[Spanner in the Works|but rescued by a]] ''[[Gambit Pileup|botched]]'' [[Gambit Pileup|plan]].

*** Which could still have turned out to be an Imperial victory if {{spoiler|Rukh didn't kill Thrawn}}.

** Though it should be noted that Sauron was ultimately right - ''no-one'' has the willpower to destroy [[Artifact of Doom|the One Ring]]. It's the interference of fate, in other words of [[God|Eru Ilúvatar]] that ultimately results in Sauron's fall.

*** [[The Plan]] against [[God]](s) may be futile as [[Power Level|power levels]] don't work very well when dealing with infinity. If dealing with an omni-intelligent god, It'd be irrelevant, as [[Carl Sagan]] once noted: 'a Googolplex is precisely as far from infinity as is the number One'.

**** The wizards themselves are already technically intervention from heaven, since they're Maiar sent on behalf of the Valar. But they were told to rely on Middle-earth to solve its own problems (see [[The Silmarillion]] for what happens when they try intervening), so they're only allowed to assist men (which is vague considering the [[You Shall Not Pass|badassery]] that Gandalf pulls).

** Almost as impressive as when the Númenoreans take him prisoner, and a few years later are almost entirely under his control.

* Done brilliantly in the ninth book of the ''[[Everworld]]'' series. Senna Wales, the witch who has been previously [[The Chessmaster|pulling all the strings]] and [[Manipulative Bastard|guiding the other characters along]] has the tables turned on her when {{spoiler|her mother, Anica Wales}} makes a deal with Merlin to capture her. Their plan is to {{spoiler|lure Senna out in the streets of Egypt at night, separating her from the others of the group who could potentially help her, forcing her to confront them alone,}} leaving her to {{spoiler|face Merlin, a mage even stronger than she is and with a thousand years of experience, with Senna's mother there to lend ''her'' witch powers in case Merlin somehow fails}} while {{spoiler|the entire city they're in is under the control of the Amazons, who are allied with Senna's mother.}} And just to make totally and completely sure that Senna has no escape and is caught like a rat in a trap, {{spoiler|Merlin brings a dragon to the party for back-up.}} And then what happens? {{spoiler|Senna, [[Magnificent Bastard]] that she is, instantly readjusts her plans, fools them both, uses Christopher as a decoy, tricks Merlin into wasting his magic, uses all of her powers as a witch and a gateway to their full extent, and ''she wins.'' The battle ends with Merlin exhausted and running in defeat, his dragon ''dead'', the Amazons driven from Egypt with their queen no longer among the living, and Anica begging her daughter for forgiveness. Basically, Senna faced two mages who are [[Crazy Prepared]] and vastly more experienced than herself, with no prior warning or prep time, and thwarted them. ''She's that good at [[Xanatos Speed Chess]]''.}} After the confrontation is over, {{spoiler|Senna}} is heavily exhausted by clearly enjoying the victory, and comments to {{spoiler|Anica}}, "You underestimated me." If that isn't a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for the whole book, or ''the entire series'', it's pretty hard to imagine what is.

** Also, chronic traitor [[Meaningful Name|Invidia]] eventually learns that yes, if you [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|betray everyone you've ever worked with]], people ''will'' eventually notice. And when you try to do it again, {{spoiler|they'll leave you stranded in the woods. Naked.}}

* The [[Big Bad]] of ''Raised by Wolves'' had a very simple plan: {{spoiler|infect Chase with lycanthropy, then leave him in Stone River Pack's territory. Chase would be taken in by Stone River, where he'd make contact with Bryn- a former target who got away- and bring her back to him.}} Unfortunately for him, {{spoiler|Callum, the pack's alpha, turned out to have precognitive abilities, a mastery of [[Xanatos Speed Chess]], and a grudge against the [[Big Bad]] for what he did to Bryn.}} [[Didn't See That Coming]].

* It's common for someone be outgambitted in [[Dan Brown]] novels.

* Done brilliantly in ''[[The Queen's Thief|The Thief]]''. The Magus of [[The Kingdom|Sounis]] frees Gen, a low-born thief who stupidly brags about his successes, from prison and forces him to steal [[MacGuffin|Hamiathes' Gift]] so the king can use it to claim rightful rulership to the throne of neighboring kingdom Eddis. {{spoiler|Except that he's been played since BEFORE the start of the book by Gen, or rather [[Magnificent Bastard|Eugenides]], the Thief of Eddis and the Queen of Eddis' COUSIN, who [[I Know You Know I Know|knew that the Magus knew]] where Hamiathes' Gift was, [[Obfuscating Stupidity|pretended to be commoner of Sounis]] and purposely bragged about his skill to draw the Magus' attention so that he'd be hired to steal it, and once he did stole it a second time in such a way to make the Magus think he lost it, and finally returned it to his queen.}}

* Minor example from ''[[Kitty Norville|Kitty and the Silver Bullet]]'': Kitty, trying her hand at being a [[Chessmaster]], tries to {{spoiler|use Detective Hardin and the Denver PD as an [[Unwitting Pawn]] to take down Carl for her. Hardin turns it around by being fashionably late to the fight, thus making Kitty bait to trap Carl into an assault charge.}} They're on the same side, though, so it's all good. Bigger example from the same book: {{spoiler|Rick's attempt to unseat Arturo is thwarted by Mercedes, with the help of a spy in his ranks. But then Arturo becomes the [[Spanner in the Works]] by opting for [[Redemption Equals Death]], thus leaving Rick in control of Denver anyway.}}

** In the first novel, the Emperor travels to Arrakis to "put down the Fremen rebellion" once and for all and to severely discipline the Harkonnens he was using as his tools. The Guild travels there to safeguard their precious Spice, having foreseen a crisis with their oracular powers. Paul Muad'dib, however, has become [[The Messiah]] possessed of far greater powers and takes advantage of having all his enemies together to pull a surprise attack that winds up with him dethroning the Emperor and taking his place.

*** Even earlier, the Atreides were themselves victim of this when they knowingly walked into the Harkonnen trap on Arrakis, counting on their superior training and potential alliance with the Fremen to see them through. What Leto failed to realize was that the Emperor was backing the Harkonnens and the sheer amount of money both were willing to spend to defeat him.

** In ''Dune Messiah'', the Bene Tleilax construct a complicated gambbit involving forcing Paul to discredit himself out of love for his consort, Chani. Paul, of course, has anticipated this, but it's the loyalty of the ghola Duncan Idaho, whom they were counting on to either kill Paul (forcing Alia to make the same choice) or recover his memories, showing Paul what could be achieved with Chani, that allows Paul to evade the trap.

** In ''Children of Dune'', Alia, now [[Grand Theft Me|possessed]] by the [[Genetic Memory]] of [[Complete Monster|Baron Harkonnen]], plots to have Paul's children assassinated to [[Regent for Life|cement her rule]]. Meanwhile, the Bene Gesserit are trying to manipulate the children into returning to their control. Leto II, however, by willingly embracing his father's messianic role, successfully discredits Alia and becomes the God Emperor.

* In ''[[Daemon|Freedom]]'' this turns out to be the case: {{spoiler|The villains thought that they had finally managed to pull one up on Sobol and beat the Daemon. Turns out that he had expected someone would try to do so and had planned against it.}}

* In [[War of the Dreaming]], this happens to Azrael's plan to free mankind from tyranny by destroying the magical realm's power over them, carried out by a complex line of murder, betrayal, backstabbery, and replacing Congress with shapeshifting doppelgangers. The counter-gambit to this is set up by {{spoiler|Prometheus}}, who outmaneuvers him simply by having a son [[Heroic Lineage|whose descendents]] will interbreed with humanity and spread the ability to [[Screw Destiny]] at much less cost.

* Black Arthur in ''[[The Demon's Lexicon]]'' thinks he's been very clever indeed: he first managed to {{spoiler|make a deal with a demon in return for unprecedented power by providing the demon with a human body that will not deteriorate - that of his infant son -}} and when that plan went awry thanks to {{spoiler|the baby's mother running away with him, allowing him to grow up among humans as Nick Ryves with no memory of his true nature}}, he managed to lure Nick into a magic circle and trap him there, counting on {{spoiler|Nick's demon nature and their original bargain}} to win out. Unfortunately, what Arthur didn't count on is that {{spoiler|Nick's adopted brother Alan}} is a lot better at this than he is: most of the events of the book are {{spoiler|part of Alan's plan to get Nick trapped in just such a magic circle, so that he could then set him free in a way that would ensure he could never be bound by another magician}}.

* In ''[[Helm]]'', {{spoiler|Arthur de Noram}} is no match for the man he tried to conspire with, {{spoiler|Siegfried Montrose}}.

 

 

* ''[[Criminal Minds]]'': In the fourth season episode "Masterpiece", [[Seinfeld|Jason Alexander]] plays a serial killer who confesses to [[The Chessmaster|Agent Rossi]] that he's committed seven murders and is about to kill five more people, unless the BAU can find where he's hidden his victims. He does this as a massive [[Take That]] to Rossi himself, who [[My Name Is Inigo Montoya|caught his serial-killer brother and watched as he was executed]]. It does not end well for him - Rossi lets him believe he's won, confess his entire scheme, and then reveals he's [[Lying to the Perp|recorded the entire thing]]. And oh yeah, his team is fine, thank you very much, he knew the place was booby-trapped. This is why one [[Papa Wolf|does not threaten Rossi's "family"]].

* In ''[[Cheers]]'' Sam is often outgambitted by rival bar owner Gary in the "Bar Wars" episodes. Other times it's the snooty owner of the restaurant upstairs, "Melville's".

* In the season 2 finale of ''[[The Sandbaggers]]'', Burnside spends the entire episode maneuvering to convince Wellingham to appoint Peele as the head of SIS, as Gibbs, the other candidate for the job, is someone he has a long-standing rivalry with; he spies on Wellingham to find out what he wants and feeds the information to Peele, goes looking for skeletons in Gibbs' closet and tells Wellingham they're common office gossip, and so on. Then Peele writes a memo that clearly displays him to be unfit for the job, and Burnside has to go back to Wellingham and walk back everything he's said, and Wellingham reveals that he knew all along what Burnside was up to, had already made the decision to appoint Gibbs, and had maneuvered Peele into writing the memo in order to convince Burnside that he wasn't a suitable candidate.

* Victoria Hardwick, one of Lex's early love interests in ''[[Smallville]]'', persuaded him to help her father take over LuthorCorp. Lex suggested they take over both their fathers' companies together. She then stole information from him that Cadmus was a prosperous lab and that LuthorCorp had sunk all their money into a bid for the company, and arranged for Hardwick to outbid them. When she revealed this to him, he explained that the data was fake and Hardwick had bought a worthless company, leaving them financially vulnerable and allowing LuthorCorp to buy them in turn.

* Pretty much how the team beats the Villain of the Week in every episode of ''[[Leverage]]''.

* Happens in ''[[Third Watch]]'' in the final season. A serial killer is playing games with two cops and won't tell them where his latest victim is hidden before she dies - he knows pretty much the exact hour this happens. However, he's willing to divulge her location after that hour. What the cops do? Since the perp has no way of knowing the time outside of the interrogation room, they switch the clocks.

 

* ''[[The History of the Devil]]'': Lucifer is out-gambitted twice; once in a flashback by {{spoiler|Jesus Christ}}, and {{spoiler|again at the ending by the prosecution}}. His goal had been to reenter heaven by proving himself innocent of humanity's suffering. {{spoiler|The prosecution acquits him on the caveat that he can never leave heaven again, knowing that heaven is ''utterly empty'', having been abandoned by God and the other angels.}}

* ''[[Dirty Rotten Scoundrels]]'' ([[The Musical]])

Lawrence: Yes Freddy, isn't {{spoiler|[[Samus Is a Girl|she]] }} wonderful! }}

 

** [[The Chessmaster|Seraph Lamington]] trumps that by a wide mile, by [[Obfuscating Stupidity|acting like a gullible fool]] around his right hand man, [[Big Bad|Archangel Vulcanus]]. Vulcanus believed Lamington was completely blind to his plan to conquer the Netherworld, Celestia, and the Human World, while it turned out Lamington was very aware of his schemes from the start, and in fact he was ''using'' Vulcanus' plan in order to lure Laharl and Flonne to Celestia so he could begin the last step in his ''own'' Gambit. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Damn]].

* Although primarily designed to be humorous, the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' game Peasant's Quest falls into this trope when the expected victory scene is replaced with {{spoiler|a short speech by Trogdor informing the player that despite having met all of the said conditions for vanquishing the dragon, he is invincible and cannot be killed. Fortunately, you get a statue built of you because you've come closer than anyone else!}}

* The player's interaction with Drakuru in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' becomes this. While he initially uses you as a pawn in his schemes to breach Drak'tharon Keep and enable the Scourge invasion of the Gun'drak zone, things change once you get there. He tries to turn you into a ghoul and make you into his [[The Dragon|right hand]], but the [[Dark Is Not Evil|Knights of the Ebon Blade]] fake the transformation and have you secretly sabotage all of his plans while pretending to serve him. Eventually you manage to turn his secret weapon against him and he asks the Lich King for help, who kills him. {{spoiler|This turns out to be because Arthas is working on a gambit of his own, and you're more important to it than Drakuru.}}

* In every ''[[Resident Evil]]'' game except ''[[Resident Evil 5|RE5]]'', Wesker always wins. Everything is set up to rebound to his benefit, even if he takes a hit or two along the way. Until ''RE5'', the ''only'' character to hand Wesker a defeat of any kind is Ada Wong, who pulls off a successful doublecross at the end of ''[[Resident Evil 4]]''.

* In ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'', Eggman pulls this on Sonic and Tails. Eggman kidnaps Amy, in order to get Sonic to give him the last Chaos Emerald. However, earlier, Tails made a fake, which would ultimately blow up the [[Kill Sat|Eclipse Cannon]]. Sonic plans to exchange it for Amy, to kill "two birds with one stone". However, Eggman tricks Sonic into getting trapped in an escape pod rigged to explode. What follows can only be expressed in dialogue.

{{quote|Eggman: "You thought you could trick me with that fake Emerald?"

Tails: "So... How did you know it wasn't the real one?"

Eggman: "[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Because]] [[You Just Told Me]], [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Fox Boy!]]" }}

* In ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'', Batman and Bane join forces to destroy all of the [[Psycho Serum|Titan drug]] in Arkham City. {{spoiler|Bane actually wants it all for himself, and only worked with Batman because it would be easier to find everything this way. However, at the resolution of the quest, Batman reveals that he knew full well Bane's intentions and that he let Bane collect his half anyway so he could dispose of them in one go.}}

* The ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' "Lost Archives" DLC reveals that {{spoiler|Warren Vidic and Lucy were working together all along to use Desmond to obtain the Apple for the Templars.}} This plan would have gone without a hitch if {{spoiler|it didn't run counter to the plans of Those Who Came Before. One of Those Who Came Before, Juno, was aware that Lucy had betrayed the Assassins. Juno had the Apple force Desmond to kill Lucy to keep the Apple out of Templar hands.}}

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Coming Up Violet]]'', [[Alpha Bitch|Racquel]] gives [[The Chessmaster|Abby]] two cups of punch, one for Abby and one for Violet. Violet's cup is spiked so that Racquel can humiliate her. Abby swaps the cups so Racquel is [[Hoist by His Own Petard|drinking her own punch,]] since Abby wants to be rid of Racquel.

* ''[[Chainsawsuit]]'' [http://chainsawsuit.com/2009/01/12/strip-144/ presents]: double sting. ''[[Dateline (TV series)|Dateline]]'' tries <s>to see a live nerd</s> To Catch A Predator. Meanwhile, a <s>nerd</s> fan tries to <s>get on screen</s> see live Stone Phillips. Wooooo!!

* The basis of [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/9/1/ this] ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' strip.

** In "You Scratch My Back", Catwoman should have known better that to try and play Nightwing, Batman's protege. He has after all been taught by [[Batman Gambit|the best]].

** In an episode of ''[[Justice League]]'', the Injustice League has captured Batman, and begins working on different ideas to tear the league apart to defeat them. What they don't realize before it's too late is that a) Batman's manipulating THEM into screwing up, and b) He can escape whenever he wanted.

** ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'''s third season revolves a great deal around the conflict between super villains Lex Luthor and Grodd. In their final confrontation, Luthor manipulates Grodd into using his own powers to destroy himself, resulting in this exchange:

{{quote|'''Luthor:''' Goodbye, Grodd. It could have gone the other way.

* ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'' had Obi-Wan and Anakin negotiate for a captured Count Dooku. The negotiations concluded, they celebrate by having a party. Our heroes are wise to the fact their drinks are spiked, and use [[The Force]] to switch theirs with some nearby partiers. {{spoiler|Not to be outdone, the [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] [[Villain of the Week]] poisons ''all the air in the room''.}}

* In ''<nowiki>[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]</nowiki>'', Long Feng and Azula are savvy enough to know they are BOTH attempting this, but {{spoiler|Azula's [[Hannibal Lecture]] is just too good and he concedes.}}

** And those tears were [[Evil Tastes Good|delicious]].

*** [[Harsher in Hindsight|Oh were they now?]]

* [[Gargoyles|David Xanatos]] in episode 12, "Her Brother's Keeper". No, seriously. His plan is to woo Elisa's brother to his side, first taking advantage of the fact that she can't tell him about the gargoyles (and hence why she thinks Xanatos is an evil mastermind) and then tell him his own version to make sure not even their testimony will help anymore. He even orders Fox to tell Elisa this outright, because with her brother no longer believing her, it will do her no good. {{spoiler|Except that it does, because she brought a tape recorder. Duh.}} This plan is hardly Xanatos's best anyway, since it involves setting hypercompetent killers on himself with serious lethal intent and real weapons.

*** Also notable in that he shows honest surprise and dismay as to the beast he's created, meanwhile in other so-called 'Xanatos loses' episodes he gains something and has a way out of jail or capture anyway.

* In one ''[[American Dad]]'' episode, Steve's mildly retarded friend Barry turns out to be a criminal mastermind kept in check only by powerful anti-psychotic "vitamins". After he goes off them and causes havoc, Steve challenges him to a game involving two cups, one of which contains his medication. The scene that follows is a parody of the one from ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'', {{spoiler|and naturally Steve put Barry's meds in both cups}}.

* In ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' Robin creates the identity of Red X so he can finally meet with [[Big Bad|Slade]]. Slade figures this out and not only does Robin only meet with a Sladebot, but this causes tension between him and his friends.

* In ''[[Generator Rex]]'', all of the villains who spent the entire series scheming to obtain the Meta-Nanites, the keys to godhood, {{spoiler|were outmaneuvered before the series even began. The Salazars -- Cesar and his parents -- had programmed the Meta-Nanites in such a way that only Rex could tap into their full power.}}

 

== Real Life ==

* One of the best examples was the Battle of Midway. The reason for the Japanese attack was to force the American carriers to come out to fight. By breaking the Japanese code, the Americans knew this and so were able to get their carriers in a position where they could catch the Japanese carriers by surprise.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Gambit Index]]