Victory by Endurance: Difference between revisions

This trope is different from a [[Pyrrhic Victory]]. The gambit revolves around ensuring that stamina/endurance--either over an extremely long period of time or after great expenditure of energy--is the deciding factor in the battle.

* This was how Bane defeated [[Batman]] in the ''[[Knightfall]]'' story arc: waiting until Batman had a normally inconvenient bout of the flu, Bane unleashed a mob of super-criminals from Arkham Asylum and waited for Batman to tire himself out trying to put them all back behind bars in the space of a few days with no sleep. Having already deduced Batman's [[Secret Identity]], Bane shows up at Wayne Manor after Bruce Wayne has practically collapsed in exhaustion and then breaks his spine.

* This is how Norman Osborn {{spoiler|kills Peter Parker in ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]''. After battling several other threats alongside ''[[The Ultimates]]'' (including taking a bullet for ''[[Captain America (comics)]]''), Peter tries to hobble home and receive medical attention. But when he gets there, his loved ones are being harassed by the Green Goblin and several others from ''Spider-man'''s [[Rogues Gallery]]. Peter (and his family/allies) fight back valiantly, but Peter eventually [[Killed Off for Real|succumbs to his injuries.]]}}

* In ''[[Warhammer 40000|Warhammer 40,000]]'', the Tau use this strategy when in military conflict with much larger and more established galactic powers like [[The Empire|The Imperium]]. The most well recorded examples of this strategy in effect would be the Damocles Crusade and the Taros Campaign. In general, the Tau will fall back from a strong enemy offensive, offering only what resistance they need to cover their retreat, and regrouping at rally points. They will allow the enemy to continue to press into their lines, falling back as necessary, then using their superior mobility to slip in behind the opposition's lines, hitting vulnerable flanks that compromise their strategy, or force them to spread themselves thin. Eventually, the opposition ends up under strength and unable to press their numerical advantage.

* In the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short "Gorilla My Dreams", [[Bugs Bunny]] is being chased by a gorilla. Just when things seem hopeless for Bugs, he finds that by the time the gorilla has caught him he was too tired to beat him up and falls over exhausted.

* In the ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'' episode "A Leaf in the Wind", [[Fictional Sport|pro-bending]] team the Fire Ferrets pull this off twice. In the first instance, Mako is the only one left standing, so he just dodges until his opponents get tired, which allows him to take [[One-Hit Polykill|all three out]]. In the second, Mako and Bolin are pinned while Korra is nearly forced [[Ring Out|off the edge]]. Korra has [[Die or Fly|an epiphany]] about airbending movements, which allows her to dodge perfectly, achieving the same result as Mako.

* This could almost be called the "Russia Gambit", as this is basically how Russia won two major wars. Both the [[Napoleonic Wars]] and [[World War Two]] were won by Russia constantly retreating into colder and colder territory while [[We Have Reserves|using their near-limitless numbers]] to slowly wear the invaders down.

* [[Second Sino-Japanese War|China.]] Jiang Jieshi gambled on the Japanese suing for peace rather than prosecuting a protracted war, which he believed that his Chinese government could well withstand - if not quite ''win'', as such - and figured that when faced with the prospect of a full-out war the Imperials would accept a face-saving settlement <ref> protracted warfare is ''expensive'', and both sides had much better things to be doing with their time. Like stamping out socialism.</ref> Unfortunately, the Japanese expected that the prospect of protracted warfare would cause ''Jiang'' to fold and come to the negotiating table first, also [[Failure Is the Only Option|failing to understand that the ''Nationalist'' Party couldn't be seen to cave in to Foreign Imperialism in an unequal settlement of the kind that the Japanese wanted from the conflict, because doing so would be tantamount to political suicide.]] So both sides escalated the war. They were still dogging it out when the USA used Japan's occupation of Indochina as a pretext for embargoing Japan in an attempt to get them to negotiate an end to the war. Because the ruling clique back home couldn't be seen to back down to 'American Imperialism', Japan entered the wider war with an all-out naval-based invasion and occupation of south-east Asia. Allocated secondary importance in the Pacific War - the USA decided that it would use its own forces to 'island hop' its way over to Japan, instead of deploying US forces in China and/or equipping Jiang's forces such that they could go on the offensive themselves - China was basically made to sit out the rest of the war and given just enough lend-lease material not to become a liability to the Allied cause. In the end, China won - but not through their own (not-inconsiderable) suffering and effort.