Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Difference between revisions

** {{spoiler|Outright subverted in ''Dune Messiah''. The Tleilaxu, Qizarate, Fremen naysayers, Bene Gesserit, and Spacing Guild hatch (a) plan(s) to remove the Atreides from power that seems to revolve around a clone of dead Atreides retainer Duncan Idaho. It turns out that the plan was much [[Gambit Roulette|more complicated]] and the clone only played a minor role, but for all the plotting it only ends up making Paul blind and by the end of the book all the conspirators are dead save for a [[High Heel Face Turn]]. What's strange is that even after the plan fails it still remains largely unspoken, especially strange since each group of the conspiracy had different agendas, meaning that each group, save for the Tleilaxu who put it in motion, was an [[Unwitting Pawn]].}}

** {{spoiler|Played straight in ''Children of Dune'', as the book covers in excruciating detail the plans of everyone conspiring against the children, but Leto II's plan remains a secret until the very end and completely trumps everyone else's.}}

* In James White's early ''[[Sector General]]'' novels, Dr. Conway did this frequently at the end of a story, when he'd finally correctly diagnosed what was wrong with his latest patient-from-an-unknown species. Somewhat [[Justified Trope]] in that the situation was by its nature [[No Time to Explain|time-critical]] by that point.

** ''Hospital Station'', "The Trouble with Emily": In this case, Dr. Conway figures out what Dr. Arratepec is trying to achieve with the titular character but will not reveal the information to the Chief Psychologist (and thus to the reader). [[Justified Trope]] in that he does not reveal his deduction to the rest of his colleagues because he may have reached his conclusion on the basis of privileged information, since the [[Psychic Powers|telepathic]] Arratepec had touched his mind. He also does not reveal his conclusions to Arratepec, whose people have been keeping quiet about the purpose of the Emily experiment for fear of public ridicule if it doesn't work out.

* ''[[The Rockford Files]]'': This trope is used every time Jim Rockford plans a con. The only time the plan is described at the beginning, everything goes south and turns into a game of [[Xanatos Speed Chess]].

* Parodied on ''[[The Young Ones]]'', when Mike proclaims he has a plan, gets into a tight huddle with the other lads, and the ''psssh psssh psssh'' sound of muffled conversation is heard. When the huddle breaks up and he asks if they all know what to do, Neil replies: "Yeah, we all go 'psssh psssh psssh'."

* The ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' sketch "How Not To Be Seen". The announcer tells the subjects to stand up after they've been concealed, only for them to be gunned down.

* Often employed by Sam and Dean on ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. Pretty much any hunt that is explained beyond what has to be done to kill the [[Monster of the Week]] is going to go awry. Perhaps best exemplified by the episode "Mommy Dearest", where the heroes are shown discussing both a Plan A and a Plan B. Both are easily foiled by the episode's villain. Dean then kills her with a previously unmentioned but obviously thought out beforehand Plan C.

* Subverted in an episode of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', when the guys plan to neutralize a 15-year-old prodigy by getting him to a party with a bunch of teenage girls. Once the party starts, they spend several minutes coming to the realization that the whole thing actually has no chance of working, and are totally flummoxed when they realize it worked ''exactly'' as planned.

 

* [[Shakespeare]]an examples:

** In ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', Friar Lawrence's plan involving the {{spoiler|faked death of Juliet}} is described to the audience. So naturally, it ends horribly.

* [[Double Subverted]] in the ''Fairly Odd Baby'' [[Made for TV Movie]] of ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]''. Timmy comes up with an Unspoken Plan that appears to fail miserably... but it then turns out it wasn't actually finished, and once it is, it ''does'' work perfectly.

* [[Double Subverted]] in a grand fashion in an episode of ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]''. We're given a step-by-step breakdown of the team's plan for infiltrating an assembly of villains complete with accompanying imagined footage of them enacting the plan. Numbah 4 expresses his doubts about the plan... [[Gilligan Cut|and then says how it worked perfectly.]] The double subversion comes when Numbah 1, who was missing during the plan, was actually captured by said assembly, forcing the team to rush in to save him.

** And Drakken's [[Eucatastrophe|most successful plan]] to defeat Kim (in [[The Movie|"So the Drama"]]) was the one where he didn't even tell [[The Dragon|Shego]] what he was planning until Kim was safely captured. Specifically justified in this case because Drakken was keeping Shego in the dark to test whether the plan was clever enough that Kim wouldn't figure it out until too late.

* Subverted in ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' where Mojo Jojo whispers a plan to defeat an alien invader. Although it initially works, its eventually failure leads to him having a break down that fuels an unstoppable beatdown of rage against the enemy

* Danny announces such a plan in a ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' episode. Though Danny didn't suspect [[The Jailer|Walker]] to use the Fenton Thermos against him, he didn't suspect Danny's plan, so it all works out in the end.

 

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[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]

[[Category:Finagle's Law]]