Didn't See That Coming: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Ah, nothing denotes how [[Crazy Prepared]] [[The Chessmaster]] is like the good old [[Gambit Pileup]]. Truly, there is ''nothing'' these twelfth-level omni-geniuses have not [[Clock King|contemplated in their equations]] and planned for with contingencies [[Time for Plan B|B through Z^42.]]

 

 

Problems tend to come in five varieties, of which varieties 3, 4, and 5 qualify for this trope:

# '''Known Unknowns:''' These are the things strategists know they don't know, but they can prepare for the different possible outcomes: The enemy has his forces deployed elsewhere when you are [[Storming the Castle]], so you need a plan for what to do if these forces do not return in time (to take full advantage), and you need a plan for what to do if the enemy forces return early.

** Someone who is especially good at this kind is probably [[Crazy Prepared]].

# '''Unknown Knowns:''' It happens. Sometimes the plotter knows a given [[The Fool|person]], event, or variable is present... but doesn't see how it could ''[[Pride|possibly]]'' impact their foolproof plans and proceeds to [[Not Now, Kiddo|dismiss it]] or [[Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal|mistreat those "irrelevant" to his plot]], and otherwise ignore [[Sword of Damocles|the sword overhead]] [[Laser-Guided Karma|while whittling at the rope holding it there]].

** In [[Mystery Fiction]], these people are the suspects and facts that are quickly [[Beneath Suspicion|discarded in favor of the high profile suspects]]. However, add up all the background chatter and the motivations for why [[The Butler Did It|it was the butler]] becomes incredibly obvious.

A plotter who is aware that these can appear, builds the flexibility into his plan, and improvises when they arise, is playing [[Xanatos Speed Chess]].

 

 

----

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** Specifically a Type 4. It occurred to him his plan might have anticipated, but underestimated his opponent's capacity to do so.

** Hell, come to think of it, it's what did {{spoiler|L in, as well. Being the world's greatest detective can only take you so far if your nemesis has a ''god'' on his side}}.

*** Though in the [[The Movie|live action movie version]], {{spoiler|L [[God Mode Sue|actually came up with]] [[Heroic Sacrifice|a way]] to counter even that factor.}}

** Of course, Quattro ''did'' see it coming in the end. She was just too late to do anything about it.

** On a wider scale, Jail and the cyborgs got blindsided completely by Section 6' available firepower, due to careful management of their [[Power Limiter|Power Limiters]] hiding what they were really capable of.

** A better example is when Luffy goes for a rematch with Crocodile, and swallows a huge barrel of water to become a living water balloon. Crocodile is more than a bit surprised by this, though he recovers quickly.

** Luffy's "execution" (actually an attempted murder) in Roguetown is prevented when the executioner is struck by a bolt of lightning. Luffy's flabbergasted allies can only conclude it was [[Divine Intervention]]. However, it's really a type 4 all around, maybe even an [[Idiot Ball]] moment. Why? They were atop a tall tower, the executioner wielding a metal sword, while ''[[What an Idiot!|thunder was rumbling in the background]]''. {{spoiler|Although it is well implied that it wasn't natural lightning that struck.}}

** Then right after that, Ala Alba's preparations promptly got shot to hell by {{spoiler|the arrival of one of Fate's minions, causing their main retreat plan, as well as most of their backups, to fall to pieces.}}

* In ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', this is pretty much the only reason why Giovanni loses against Red in the two battles they fought against each other. First time, he completely dominated Red from beginning to end, took down all his Pokemon except Pika, and knew that he could take Red down before it could attack. How was he supposed to know Red stole Lt. Surge's gloves so that Pika could charge up its attack in its Pokeball? The second time, his Deoxys is beating him and Mewtwo. Too bad Bill and Celio, miles and miles away from the battle, manage to steal the jewels that were allowing Deoxys to form change.

** {{spoiler|What he ''did'' fail to see coming was that Naruto would be able to detect ''murderous intention'', leading to his actual death.}}

** In the first movie ''Ninja Clash in the Snow'', there's a incredibly obvious Type 5: the evil ruler of Snow Country is trying to activate a machine that his peace-loving brother (who he overthrew) created under the assumption that it's a [[You Fail Logic Forever|superweapon]]. The machine turned out to be {{spoiler|a system of mirrors designed to warm the country and trigger spring.}}

* In ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' during the Kyoto arc, Shishio has set up an attack on Kyoto as a distraction for his real goal: to take his pre-Dreadnought era Dreadnought to Tokyo. He wasn't too surprised that Kenshin read through this ruse, however he and his Dragon didn't know about Sano and frankly didn't care when he showed up. {{spoiler|Until they found out he brought a former terrorist friends gift with him; a handful of bombs. It was this that managed to destroy the ship.}}

* ''[[To Aru Majutsu no Index]]'': A type 4, bordering on type 5, screws up Aleister Crowley's plans big time when {{spoiler|Shiage Hamazura}}, a completely normal Level 0, defeats a Level 5. From then on, {{spoiler|Shiage Hamazura}} becomes an unknown variable to be accounted for, forcing Aleister to use up resources in order to eliminate the unknown variable.

 

 

== Board Games ==

* In [[Shogi]], remember that it's possible to have your captured pieces used against you.

* Since [[Go]] has a ridiculously complicated [[Metagame]] deciding who actually controls territory on the board, it's possible to make unorthodox (or slightly less orthodox) moves that result in a massive advantage. (For a glamorized version of how this might happen, watch any match in [[Hikaru no Go]].)

 

* Frequent ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'' the [[wikipedia:Mad Thinker|Mad Thinker]] is often foiled by things that even his supergenius intelligence can't predict, [[Straw Vulcan|such as random human behavior]].

* ''[[Infinity Gauntlet|The Infinity War]]'' has a resurrected Magus employ a complicated scheme to {{spoiler|seize all the Infinity Gems from Warlock and his Infinity Watch}}. Because the plan is too complicated requiring all his attention, the Magus literally ''doesn't see'' the {{spoiler|combined efforts of [[Doctor Doom]] and Kang interfering with his plan.}}

* Malekith the Accursed in ''[[The Incredible Hercules]]'' falls prey to this. [[Epic Fail|One panel]] after he revealed his scheme. {{spoiler|Who can stand against the mighty Grendell with Hercules and [[The Mighty Thor]] both weakened? ''Zeus''. To add injury to insult, Grendell then ''fell on him''.}} Probably a Type 5, as the plan was based on the assumption that {{spoiler|Zeus was still dead.}}

* In a ''[[Dracula]]'' vs ''[[Superman]]'' crossover Dracula was struck with an ignominious Type 5. His plan was to drink Superman's blood and thus gain the powers of a Kryptonian. Unfortunately he was not aware that Superman is ''solar-powered'', and drinking his blood had a similar effect to trying to chow down on an active grenade.

 

 

== Fan Fic ==

* Pops up left and right in ''[[Tiberium Wars (Fanfic)|Tiberium Wars]]'', to both GDI and Nod. After all, GDI never saw the initial Nod assault coming, nor did Nod ever see {{spoiler|Havoc's mini-guerilla war}}, {{spoiler|fifty thousand GDI Marines}}, or {{spoiler|a ''division'' of Mammoth Tanks}} coming.

** Also, no one was expecting Kerrun to have a [[Villainous Breakdown]] and declare the skahs to actually be Idris (the mortal enemies of the Raleka), shifting the focus of the Raleka away from John and Ringo.

 

 

== Film ==

** A type 4 occurs later in the movie when {{spoiler|the Alliance's trap is derailed as Serenity charges at them with an army of Reavers.}}

{{quote| '''Jayne:''' You know they're gonna see us coming.<br />

'''Mal:''' No. They're not going to see this coming. }}

* The [[Coen Brothers]] movie ''[[Fargo]]'' centers around a man trying to get out of financial trouble by hatching a [[Xanatos Gambit]] to have some men kidnap his wife and pretend to hold her for ransom so he could get some money from her wealthy father to pay off his debts. The plan spirals completely out of control and causes the deaths of about five or six people, including the wife.

{{quote| '''Frank:''' ''(after getting his arm chopped off out of nowhere)''"Ugh! I did ''not'' see that coming!"}}

* The Joker's reaction to the eventual result of his social experiment in ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'' can be seen as an emotive example of this trope. Of course, being the Joker, he's not put off for long.

* [[Star Wars|Palpatine]]. [[Rock Beats Laser|Ewoks]]. And he apparently never considered that a guy who [[Love Makes You Evil|turned to the Dark Side to save his wife]] might [[Love Redeems|turn from it to save his son]].

** If you take that plot from the EU, you could say that he ''did'' have a plan to survive the latter...but not for the Rebellion succeeding in blowing up the Death Star.

{{quote| '''Preed:''' An intelligent guard. [[Didn't See That Coming|Didn't see that one coming.]]}}

** Type 4 occurs in the climax. The Drej have their entire fleet attacking the Titan station, hellbent on destroying it. Titan is running on auxiliary power, which isn't enough to activate the station. The Drej, being energy beings, are undefeatable...until {{spoiler|the heros realize that Drej energy can be absorbed and converted into station power. The entire fleet is destroyed.}}

** Which makes for a nice bit of irony (or something) as {{spoiler|he shortly after loses the ability to see ANYTHING coming in an [[Eye Scream]] moment.}}

* The type 4 is the whole plot of ''[[Under Siege]]'' with S. Seagal. Who would have thought that this annoying ''cook'' could be a threat to the very well conceived plan executed by the bad guys.

* In the ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'' movie ''All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker'', the [[Big Bad]] Shadow Moon has Decade and Kuuga right where he wants them when {{spoiler|Kamen Rider Double comes out of nowhere for a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] ending with Shadow Moon embedded in the wall of his own castle}}.

* The film version of ''[[Richie Rich]]'' fits type 5 almost word-for-word, as the Riches do in fact keep family memorabilia in their safe. Their money, rather sensibly, has been ''invested'' and isn't vulnerable to just being swiped.

* In [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[Foundation]]'' series, Hari Seldon is able to predict politics using math. However, the emergence of "The Mule", a [[Mutants]] ({{spoiler|sort of}}), is so powerful that he alters the path of history. When Seldon's message about a Civil War (predicted for the time of The Mule's emergence) goes over like a lead balloon, the people realize that The Mule has altered the plan. Seldon has died by this time, so he doesn't get a moment to reflect, but the [[Oh Crap|reactions of the people who have up until then been relying on Seldon's fully accurate predictions are fairly priceless]].

** Of course, while Seldon didn't see the Mule himself coming, he ''did'' see the possibility of an unexpected variable coming and screwing with his plan, so he [[Crazy Prepared|created a secret group tasked with correcting things if the unexpected occurred]].

* In ''[[Dragaera|Yendi]]'', a perfectly good plan to {{spoiler|install Sethra the Younger as Warlord}} was foiled because Aliera and Morrolan were standing in the wrong places and then Aliera revived Norathar and Cawti.

* [[The Culture]] has its own term for Type 3 situations -- an "Outside Context Problem". For instance, a prosperous South Pacific island tribe suddenly discovering they've been colonized by an 18th-century European naval power -- the kind of situation a civilization only encounters the same way a sentence encounters a period, ''once''. The novel ''Excession'' revolves around one of these in the form of a [[Negative Space Wedgie]].

** Arguably, the entire country of Westeros got screwed when Eddard Stark met Joffrey Baratheon. {{spoiler|Instead of allowing Lord Stark to live in exchange for a false confession, the newly-crowned Joffrey has him executed, and thus the War of the Five Kings is kicked off with a bang.}}

* The villains of the last ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia|Narnia]]'' book ''[[The Last Battle]]''; Shift, Ginger, and the Calormene warlord Rishdan, all meet a nasty end due to one horrifying Unknown Unknown: {{spoiler|the demon Tash is ''real''. And ''pissed''.}}

** Unknown Known 1: he threatened Space Marines with a spacegoing artillery piece and [[Straw Vulcan|assumed they'd do the logical thing and back down]], despite the fact that these Marines are descended from the most headstrong of the loyal Primarchs, and Marines are [[Honor Before Reason|not very logical people]] in any case.

** Unknown Known 2: threatening a star fort without considering that there may be vehicles on board...vehicles the Soul Drinkers used to take over the artillery piece.

{{quote| ''How do I outthink someone smarter than I am?''}}

** The following book {{spoiler|subverts this. Apparently, one way to handle Unknown Unknowns is to spy on your enemy until the last possible second, and have someone around that can serve as a body double...}}

** Voldy has one as well before the series takes place. He seriously did not expect a mother's love [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good|to cause his curse to backfire like it did]]. He later admits his mistake...[[Chekhov's Gun|but he doesn't]] ''[[Chekhov's Gun|learn]]'' [[Chekhov's Gun|from it]].

** The legacy of the Elder Wand, which Voldemort so desired in ''Deathly Hallows'', was supposed to die with {{spoiler|Dumbledore, by having Snape kill him '''by his command'''}}. However, unexpected and unbeknown to everyone till the very end, {{spoiler|Draco Malfoy had already inadvertently gained the wand's allegiance at the end of ''The Half-Blood Prince'' by Disarming Dumbledore (thus defeating him) beforehand}}. Then a few months later, {{spoiler|Harry overpowers Malfoy at the Malfoy Manor, which subsquently tranfers the Elder Wand's ownership to '''him'''}}. According to {{spoiler|wand lore, one only has to defeat the Elder Wand's current master to win over its ownership; whether the previous master was in possession of the wand does not matter}}. Thus, even though Voldemort {{spoiler|is in possession of the Elder Wand in the final battle, he cannot unleash its full power, nor can he harm Harry with it, as the wand has already sworn allegiance to Harry, making him its true master}}.

* Caesar from [[Matthew Reilly]]'s ''Area 7'' puts a microwave transmitter on the president's heart, so that he can set explosives to blow up half of America the moment he dies. {{spoiler|He also puts one on his own heart to prevent the heroes killing him if his plan fails.}} He didn't anticipate that the heroes could fake the signal using the black box from an AWACS plane {{spoiler|allowing Schofield to [[Combat Pragmatist|just shoot him]].}}

* The appendix of [[Dune]] (the first Dune book) argues that the Bene Geserit order should have foreseen that the Kwisatz Haderach they were trying to create would not serve the order.

** They were also making it easy for their members to fake being messiahs in case of emergency, so they underestimated the real thing.

{{quote| This is a billiard table... And you have hit your white ball and it is traveling easily and quietly towards the red. The pocket is alongside. Fatally, inevitably, you are going to hit the red and the red is going into that pocket. It is the law of the billiard table. But, outside the orbit of these things, a jet pilot has fainted and his plane is diving straight at the billiard room, or a gas main is about to explode... And the building collapses on you and on top of the billiard table. Then what has happened to that white ball that could not miss the red ball, and to the red ball that could not miss the pocket? The white ball could not miss according to the laws of the billiard table. But the laws of the billiard table are not the only laws.}}

** Subsequently, Tony falls to a type 3 -- {{spoiler|he's not in a caper novel, [[Genre Shift|he's in a time travel book]]. He's prevented from murdering the professor via 1) time/space travel [[Big Damn Heroes|getting the heroes there on time]] and 2) future technology [[Cool and Unusual Punishment|permanently removing his capacity for physical violence]] -- he ends up with catastrophic failure of coordination any time he tries to hurt someone.}} The [[Genre Shift]] is too much for him.

** Also, he didn't expect that {{spoiler|Quincie would abandon him for Kieran after all}}, though that might more accurately be [[Hubris]].

** ''Mission of Honor''. Manticore was on alert and ready for trouble, but {{spoiler|Oyster Bay}} still succeeded because {{spoiler|the Mesans were not using impellers, which the Manties knew to look out for, but their new spider drives, which were a completely new technology.}}

* Pretty much the reaction of the Malwa Empire and Link every time their carefully-made plans encounter a Byzantine general named [[Belisarius Series|Belisarius]].

{{quote| {{spoiler|Gaius: Crows. Didn't even look at them twice}}}}

* ''[[Nuklear Age]]'''s Dr. Menace encounters one every few seconds, as one after another of her plots fail in ''[[Deus Ex Machina]]'' style. Her first kidnapping plot failed when a just-introduced supporting character happened to catapult into her abandoned warehouse base, destroying the building, her orbital death ray failed when Nuklear Man decided to show off by firing a Plazma Beam into the sky, her plan to convince Nuklear Man to turn evil via telepathy failed when Dr. Genius happened to contact him telepathically soon afterward and he mentioned it in passing, her plan to capture her alien visitor failed when the alien happened to be an nigh-omnipotent god... Her plans not only failed, but failed in the most frustrating style possible. It is mentioned several times that she was finding it more and more difficult not to start screaming.

* In [[Jack Campbell]]'s [[The Lost Fleet]] novel ''Invincible'', Desjani warns that her great plan is also a terrible plan because they know so little about the aliens that it relies on some assumptions that could easily be thrown off. They go with it anyway, though.

 

* Pretty much every episode of ''[[Leverage]]'', starting with Episode 1.

* In an episode of ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' a local gangster discovers that Sarah is a fugitive and tries to blackmail her. To make sure she would play along, he sends one of his henchman to kidnap her children. Since Sarah's "daughter" is actually a [[Deceptively-Human Robots|killing machine]] from the future, that plan goes [[Hilarity Ensues|really bad, really fast]].

** A very subtle double example, as the payoff is in an earlier episode: the Dominion worked out the ''exact same'' projections, and had a counter to it: {{spoiler|When they won, they were going to purge Earth, as an example.}}

** In ''Children of Earth'', Jack Harkness falls prey to a Type Four: he knew that the 456 were capable of {{spoiler|curing viruses deadly to humans}}, but it never occurred to him that they could create and instantly release one if anyone tried to resist their demands.

** The Volume Four premiere had a Type Four. Danko, having rounded up most of the specials and put them on a plane to a detention facility, agrees to free Claire in order to mollify Nathan Petrelli (her father). He admits that her power ([[Good Thing You Can Heal|regeneration]]) doesn't make her a threat to society. However, he didn't know that Nathan has no real control over Claire, or that being immortal and all but immune to pain means that she can and will carry out acts normal people would consider suicidal. {{spoiler|Claire escapes from Nathan, gets on the plane via the landing gear, frees the captive specials, and ends up causing the plane to crash. Now the government has to round up the specials all over again, only this time they're actively evading capture.}}

* After capturing [[Stargate SG-1|SG-1]] in a planet he recently conquered, Cronos decided to publicly execute them so that the locals would see how foolish it is to try to resist him. Unfortunately for him, during the execution it was revealed that {{spoiler|they were actually SG-1 robotic Doppelgangers}}. Kind of hard to keep claiming to be an [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|all-knowing god]] when you can't even [[Jaw Drop|keep your jaw closed.]]

* In ''[[The Office]]'' every time Dwight tries to do something manipulative it falls prey to this. He even lampshades it.

{{quote| Just once, I would like to be a [[The Chessmaster|puppetmaster]] and have nothing go wrong. Just once.}}

** Considering the Master has been in a prison for hundreds of years, it's possible that CPR itself was an "unknown unknown" to him. The idea that a human could come back to life through non-supernatural means may well have been completely foreign to him.

** In Season Two, Spike and Drusilla had a plan to destroy the world. They had resurrected the Judge, a demon who, according to prophecy, could not be killed by any weapon forged. They did not take into account several hundred years of advancement in weapons technology, and [[No Man of Woman Born|Buffy blew away the Judge with a rocket launcher]].

** Given that The Judge was defeated last time he rose up too, they might not have actually expected him to destroy the world (which Spike rather likes), but they were certainly expecting a bigger death toll than ''two''. One of which was one of their own minions.

* On ''[[Covert Affairs]]'', Auggie experiences a 4-5 combination when he appeals to his ex-girlfriend Natasha for help on a case, and is somewhat surprised and dismayed when she refuses to help, still angry that he landed her in jail previously. He says the trope name verbatim when she slaps him upon their first reunion...except he means it literally, having been blinded since their last encounter.

** Gatehouse gets this in his first encounter with Glickman, when he realises that Glickman knew he was coming in advance and prepared countermeasures; namely, {{spoiler|a large bomb, which destroys his shop and almost kills Gatehouse}}.

** In the next episode this happens to Glickman himself. {{spoiler|He contacts his girlfriend not knowing that she's working for Counterpoint. She then stabs him to death.}}

 

 

 

== Video Games ==

* Calypso sometimes runs into this in ''[[Twisted Metal]]''; he doesn't always pick the most dependable players. [[Monster Clown|Sweet Tooth]] tends to do this most often, but he's gotten caught off-guard by others as well. At least ''four'' characters turn the tables on him in ''Twisted Metal 2''.

** {{spoiler|[[Scooby Doo|"And I would have gotten away with it, too! If it weren't for you meddling kids and that dog!]]}}

* In ''[[Command and Conquer]]'', [[Magnificent Bastard|Kane's]] always a step ahead. Of everyone. GDI, Scrin, his own generals. Then in ''Command & Conquer 3'' {{spoiler|he undergoes a [[Villainous Breakdown]] when Kilian's forces ally with GDI. And then in Kane's Wrath, when it's revealed just how proficient Kane is at playing a [[Gambit Roulette]], he's yet again surprised when Alexa reveals to have tried to destroy LEGION, and tricked Kane into executing Kilian, out of her ''devotion to Kane''. That said, he still wins out in the end}}.

* In ''[[Blaz Blue]]'', Hakumen says a variation of this in his ''Calamity Trigger'' Arcade path when {{spoiler|Nu-13 turns out to be the ninth fight instead of the last one.}}

** Since the only way that she could reasonably be defeated was if the player read a guide beforehand, that was probably a reasonable point of view.

** Nobody predicted that {{spoiler|''Sin itself'', or rather Jecht, was capable of setting into motion events that would lead to its destruction.}}

* Sun Li, Glorious Strategist for the ''[[Jade Empire]]''. Yeah, marvelous [[Xanatos Gambit]]. Flawless, right down to {{spoiler|deliberately putting flaws in the Player Character's fighting style}}. But...he really didn't expect that {{spoiler|The Water Dragon}} was running an equally good one to counter it.

* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'' despite the [[Abusive Precursors|Reapers]] being terrifyingly thorough when it comes to wiping out all life in the galaxy, they still can't foresee every outcome:

** [[Mass Effect 2|Harbinger]] recognized [[Player Character|Commander Shepard]] as a major threat, and had him/her eliminated. He didn't count on Cerberus being able to resurrect Shepard, rebuild the Normandy, and point him/her right at the Collectors.

** {{spoiler|The original Shadow Broker didn't see the betrayal by his [[Always Chaotic Evil]] yahg agent betraying him until it was too late.}}

** In a ''Mass Effect'' novel, the Illusive Man captures Paul Grayson, a rogue Cerberus agent, and has him implanted with Reaper nanites, effectively turning him into a Saren-type Husk. He keeps Grayson sedated and has Kai Leng on standby to kill Grayson if necessary. Then the research station is attacked by a turian squad sent to stop Cerberus and rescue Grayson. The Illusive Man's plan is ruined, and he barely escapes with his life. Unfortunately, the turians experience this as well. They rescue Grayson but have no idea that he's already under Reaper control.

* [[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]] - Pity poor Sebastian [[La Croix]]. For an ineffectual-seeming idiot Prince, he manages to make [[Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder|surprisingly good use of the PC]] and then {{spoiler|turn the entire city against you when he [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|doesn't need you anymore]]}}. Problem is, there was simply no way he could count on {{spoiler|you defeating the Blood Hunt and any and all other opposition by yourself, Caine empowering you to defeat his Dominate, ''and'' Jack [[Zero Wing|setting him up the bomb]]}}. Okay, the first might have been something he should have expected, but the rest almost amounts to a [[Diabolus Ex Machina]] from his perspective.

** Also, in [[Ace Attorney Investigations Miles Edgeworth|Miles Edgeworth's game]], {{spoiler|Quercus Alba is unbeatable, until a series of these brings him down. Notable in that multiple completely unpredictable (from his perspective) events are required for him to be arrested}}.

* In ''[[Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning]]'' {{spoiler|Tirnoch created the Fateless One so that he/she could free Tirnoch from her prison that she was destined to hold her forever}}. This part works perfectly. What {{spoiler|Tirnoch}} ''didn't'' see coming was {{spoiler|the Fateless One being powerful enough to kill her.}}

 

 

{{quote| '''Beholder:''' Thus is was written...<br />

'''The Archmage:''' This was not supposed to happen. }}

** The identity of the champion.

{{quote| {{spoiler|Thog: thog is the Champion, thog's friends! And thog will keep fighting to the end! }}}}

'''Torg''': I don't know, but in [[Bring My Brown Pants|every situation]] I could think up, I was ''glad to have them''. }}

*** Followed about twenty strips later by magical moths that eat all clothing. '''"[[Crazy Prepared|This looks like a job for]] ''[[Crazy Prepared|emergency pants!]]''"''' He ''did'' see it coming, even though he couldn't have.

* ''[[SSDD]]'', the Oracle is usually successful in his [[Gambit Roulette|Gambit Roulettes]] due to the fact that he was designed to make accurate predictions, but [http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/20010601.html apparently] [[Time Travel]] throws him off.

* Kale Williams utters those exact words in the [[Quetza Drake]]'s ''[[Furthia High]]'' comic, when {{spoiler|Campy shows up to the school dance with a male date.}}

** Ashley averts it when she calmly replies, "I did."

* [[Bob and George]]: Our [[Idiot Hero]] is on the edge of a cliff with The Yellow Demon jumping at him -- [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/000709c so he runs back and the cliff falls]. Bet you the demon didn't see it coming.

** And the sickly Met Demon actually has an attack. [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/050524c X uses the trope name]

* The defunct webcomic ''Filthy Lies'' had one character daydream a [[Self Insert]] fic where he was a [[Jerkass Stu]] (using Felix Felicis, for example, to have a threesome with Hermione and Ginny) in the events of [[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince|Harry Potter]]...who, during the climax, ended up screwing everything up so that all the good guys died. {{spoiler|He even took the big moment away from Snape by accidentally bumping Dumbledore off the top of the tower with poor broom handling before Snape could perform Avada Kedavra.}}

{{quote| '''Snape:''' I did ''not'' see that coming.}}

* A chain of these in ''Alanna''. {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Tristan]] has forcibly bonded OB, the god of lightning and dissection, to himself, and EB, the god of Frost and Destruction, to the protagonist}}. All he needs to do is capture the protagonist, and he pretty much wins. He knows that the protagonist has a lightning sprite that can absorb his electrical attacks to become stronger, but considers it to be a non-factor because sprites are easily banished. He also knows that {{spoiler|EB's creations will obey her, but isn't worried because he has a small army of Amalgams, and also knows that OB's creations can only function under OB's orders}}. However, he was completely unaware of several important facts: firstly, {{spoiler|OB's creations had a small degree of autonomy, and had built a clone of OB to guide them; Tristan didn't know about this because Fake!OB was non-functional, but the protagonist managed to get it operational. In return, Fake!OB sent OB's creations against Tristan for the final battle, and also gave the protagonist's lightning sprite a warding that made it impossible for Tristan to banish. lastly, it gave her a means to communicate with the imprisoned Real!OB}}. Tristan's [[Oh Crap|reaction]] to this is absolutely [[Crowning Moment of Funny|priceless]]. {{spoiler|More importantly however, Tristan is unaware that there was a complication during EB's bonding}}. At the start of the story, "Spirit Guides" (Actually [[No Fourth Wall|the readers, who give the protagonist suggestions on what to do]]) were bonded to the protagonist, {{spoiler|occupying the place where EB was supposed to go, meaning that EB is actually bound to ''the readers'', instead of the protagonist. Since we can sever our connection with the protagonist at any time, the readers are essentially provided with a big red button labeled "Screw Tristan's plans six ways to Sunday." And Tristan certainly couldn't have predicted the readers using this information to prove to the original OB that Tristan's plan couldn't work, and that this would cause OB to take advantage of Tristan's unstable mental state when he tried to go [[One-Winged Angel]] to leave his body}}.

* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2084 Lil' Evil flips off God and runs off. God asks him where exactly he thought he could hide.]

== Western Animation ==

* Happens quite a bit in ''[[Johnny Test]]'', leading to a character [[Catch Phrase|using this line]].

{{quote| '''Brainiac:''' "{{spoiler|Kal-El}}! ...This occurrence was highly improbable."}}

* And let's not forget Amanda Waller in ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]''.

** Then, of course, there was the episode "Wild Cards." In the middle of Joker's bomb threat on Vegas being aired as a reality TV show, Batman manages to talk to Harley Quinn alone. He insinuates that Joker seems awfully close to Ace, the new henchgirl. Harley storms off toward her puddin' in a jealous rage, but not before throwing and landing a solid punch on Batman for enlightening her. Cue to a shot of Joker staring blankly at a television screen after the exchange is over.

{{quote| '''Joker''': Have to admit, I didn't see ''that'' one coming...}}

** In the [[Alternate Universe]] short "[[High School AU|School Time Shipping]]", Zuko, understandably, utters this when Katara reveals her choice of date to the dance: {{spoiler|the Blue Spirit, Zuko's ''[[Secret Identity|alter ego]]''.}}

** [[Complete Monster|Fire Lord Ozai]] faces a couple in the last episode: an Unknown Known {{spoiler|Aang regaining control of the Avatar State}} and then and Unknown Unknown {{spoiler|Energy Bending}}.

* This is how Homer winds up going to a Krusty the Clown themed clown college in one episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' (after being bombarded by new billboards telling him all the stuff he has to buy). He gets up in the middle of dinner, declares his intentions, and walks away. Bart just states, "I don't think any of us expected him to say that."

* One episode of ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', "Grounder the Genius", had the eponymous bumbling robot minion accidentally end up with Dr. Robotnik's stolen Super Genius Program in his head; he instantly transforms into an [[The Chessmaster|uber-chessmaster]] with enough smarts to incapacitate Sonic and decide that the bad doctor [[Turned Against Their Masters|has no place in his own schemes for world domination]]. In the end, he has Sonic and Tails on the ropes with a lightning generator and announces that he's thought of every possible occurrence...[[Didn't See That Coming|except the one where fellow bumbling robot minion Scratch shows up trying to help]] [[Losing Your Head|and accidentally knocks his head off.]]

* It was almost a [[Running Gag]] in ''[[Kim Possible]]'' how many bad guys would have Kim and/or Ron absolutely nailed to the wall, fail to account for [[Team Pet|Rufus]] chewing through their bonds or hitting the self-destruct for the [[Kill Sat]], and then are absolutely stunned that their plans were foiled in the end. And they never learned otherwise no matter how many times it happened to the same villains.

** Well actually an early episode Drakken did manage to spot Rufus in time to foil him (or rather a mind controlled Kim pointed it out). But he winds up underestimating Kim's brothers when he doesn't believe a portable machine they made could stop him.

** "Yet another unexpected twist."

{{quote| '''Hunter:''' "I would NOT have predicted this!"<br />

'''Colleen:''' "[[Lampshade Hanging|Face it, Hunty. The Psychic Network, you're not...]]" }}

* The events of the first ''[[Futurama]]'' [[Christmas Episode]] lead Fry to lament, "I never thought it would end this way... gunned down by [[Badass Santa|Santa Claus]]. Honestly, I didn't see it coming!"

** The two things that Discord hadn't planned for were {{spoiler|Celestia breaking Twilight out of her [[Heroic BSOD]] by sending her the letters her student had sent her the entire previous season and Twilight somehow reuniting her friends and breaking them out of Discord's [[Mind Rape]] so they could use the Elements Of Harmony to defeat him.}} The former is likely an Unknown Unknown he couldn't have expected and the latter is a Known Unknown, he knew about who was involved but hadn't forseen how they could do anything to stop him at that point.

** After {{spoiler|Chrysalis true form being revealed true form in front of Celestia and her plans explained, it was obvious that Celestia wasn't going to stay still about it. What it wasn't obvious was that the queen of the Changelings had already gathered enough strenght to beat the Princess. Not even Chrysalis expected that!}}

** Note that this occurs because the plot has already been resolved, and then in the last scene a [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|giant bird busts through the ceiling and eats Kenny.]]

* Discussed by Edward's friend (voiced by Samuel Jackson) in [[The Boondocks]]. He talks about how there are known unknowns, things that we know that we don't know, and unknown unknowns, namely things that we don't know that didn't know, in order to justify how the plan that they had to capture a killer was so far going badly.