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|'''Cavilo''', ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|The Vor Game]]''}}
A '''Xanatos Gambit''' is a [[Plan]] whose multiple foreseen outcomes all benefit its creator. It's a win-win situation for whoever plots it.
At its most basic, the Xanatos Gambit assumes two possible outcomes for [[Unwitting Pawn|the one manipulated]]—success or failure. The plan is designed in such a way that [[Morton's Fork|either outcome will ultimately further the plotter's goals]].
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** Skunk has one early on. He uses robots to hunt other robots and sell their parts on the black market. He hid his home base in a abandoned ice cream factory and here's where the gambit comes in. If no one finds him, he can continue unbothered but hopes Astro ''does'' find him because he has a trap set up.
* {{spoiler|Redda}} of ''[[Mon Colle Knights]]'' has a one. {{spoiler|he summons Dread Dragon, who traps the real Rockna within its neck, and Redda explains to Mondo that he can either destroy Dread Dragon and take Rockna with it, or get destroyed himself trying to save Rockna without harming the dragon. In the end, Gabriolis comes just in time to help and Rockna is saved anyway, and both heroes fuse with Gabriolis to destroy Dread Dragon. Nevertheless, either way, this still provides enough time of a distraction for Redda to get away and thus, Redda still succeeds in getting all of the Monster Items, which he plans to use to revive Oroboros and destroy everything himself}}.
* In the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' episode, "The Dual Giant", the title character is a mysterious duelist who is challenging Obelisk students to ante duels (which is illegal) and soundly trashing them. As these duals start to become known around campus, Professor Chronos has a bad situation on his hands - his students are being humiliated, and if the Chancellor found out, he'd be fired. Then he gets an idea, that he feels as a win-win situation. He offers Judai and Sho exemption from a Duel Theory report if he can identify the Duel Giant (in the dub, he instead offers no homework for the rest of the year). Chronos assumes that if Judai identifies the Giant (whether he wins or loses the duel) he can have both Judai and the Giant expelled for ante dueling. However, it doesn't quite go according to his plan - Judai does manage to defeat the Giant (who is, in fact, two Ra students working as accomplices, [[Bully Hunter| seeking revenge on the Obelisk students]]), but in doing so makes peace with them and convinces them to return the anted cards, then tells Chronos he was unable to find the Giant. (In the dub version, he claims that he found and defeated him, but the Giant ran away before he could identify him.) Unfortunately, he and Sho still have to do the report which is now overdue.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* Lord Malvolio, the son of a Terran woman and an extraterrestrial [[Green Lantern]] Corps member, who had his father's ring, tricked Green Lantern Hal Jordan into taking his ring. After Jordan had thought that he defeated him, Malvolio simply got back up again. While Jordan may have had Malvolio's ring through Emerald Twilight, Malvolio only returned in prose.
* In [[Green Lantern]]'s ''[[Sinestro Corps War]]'', Sinestro gloats that although his corps is losing the battle {{spoiler|he's already won, because by forcing the Green Lanterns to use lethal force against his troops he's proved that he can use fear to effect change, even when it comes to the most sacred principles of the Corps.}}
* In the ''[[New Gods]]'', [[Darkseid]] and Highfather exchanged their sons as part of a cease-fire treaty between Apokolips and New Genesis. Darkseid immediately handed Highfather's son over to Granny Goodness and ordered her to put him through twice the torture that the other orphans on Apokolips endure under her "care". Darkseid knew that the increased torment would push the newly christened Scott Free (the future Mr. Miracle) to escape Apokolips at any cost. This would violate the terms of the treaty and give Darkseid an excuse to retaliate. In the meantime, Darkseid is secure in the knowledge that his hated enemy's son is going through hell. Ultimately, however, this may be a subversion, for Darkseid didn't count on both Mr. Miracle and Orion, his son who he had given to Highfather, along with Barda, another of Granny's students who falls in love with Scott, later becoming
* All of the events within the first 12 issues of ''Red Robin'' were in fact one massive Gambit by {{spoiler|Ra's Al Ghul, who was testing Tim Drake's worthiness as a potential father to his next heir apparent}}.
** Which ended up an [[Aborted Arc]] when the universe rebooted before it could be finished.
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* In the ''[[Firefly]]'' fic ''[[Forward]]'', the corrupt Alliance cop Womack forces Mal and his crew into one of these by giving them [[An Offer You Can't Refuse|an offer they can't refuse]]: either they take out an illegal organ-growing operation whose operator is disagreeing with Womack, or he'll have the crew arrested as the organ smugglers, as his superiors are breathing down his neck about capturing ''someone'' to blame for it all. In reality, he's also running a second con underneath it: if Mal and his crew take out the smuggling operation, it will work out fine, but if Serenity's crew fails, they'll scare the smugglers into packing up and moving shop off the planet, which gets them out of Womack's hair anyway. Either way, he wins. It ''almost'' works too, but {{spoiler|the Operative's unexpected assault on the same organ-growing operation sent the whole thing pear-shaped}}.
* ''[[Ultimate Sleepwalker|Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams]]'' has Sleepwalker trapped in Rick Sheridan's mind as part of a larger gambit by his [[Arch Enemy]] Cobweb. If Sleepwalker had been killed at any point during the plan, then Cobweb could have proceeded with the rest of it without any more trouble. On the other hand, Cobweb had it rigged up so even if Sleepwalker survived, it only allowed the next part of the plan to begin anyway. Cobweb puts in so many failsafes that Sleepwalker only finally manages to derail his plan at the ''very'' last minute.
* ''[[Ultimate SpiderWoman
* The modus operandi of the [[Wise Prince]] protagonist in ''[[Dragon Age: The Crown of Thorns]]'', although he's definitely not the only one who uses them. Notable ones include {{spoiler|setting up safeguards to whether or not his plan to fake Trian's death works}} in the early chapters and {{spoiler|building on them when dealing with the succession mess.}}
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** Of course, he still doesn't win. {{spoiler|All seven dragons working together are able to destroy the goo. The Shadow Lord was probably banking on Lief being unable to get the notoriously territorial dragons to cooperate.}}
* [[Magnificent Bastard|Sauron]] pulls one of these against [[Unwitting Pawn|Ar-Pharazon of Numenor]] in ''[[The Silmarillion]]''. By goading Pharazon into assembling the largest army in history and setting out to make war on [[Council of Angels|the Valar]], he sets up his defeat nicely by pitting him against opponents far beyond his league. In the unlikely event that Pharazon actually wins, Sauron's still ahead, as the Valar are his enemies as well. Overall, things go very smoothly (sure, Sauron loses his physical body when Illuvatar destroys not the the fleet, but the entire island of Numenor, but it was just an [[Fighting a Shadow|avatar]], so Sauron's spirit survives and most of the Numenoreans die). Pity for him that not ''all'' the Numenoreans were dead, though...
* Voldemort's plan in ''[[
* [[H. Beam Piper]] uses this in "Ministry of Disturbance". The emperor notes a couple of times that when you have a few problems, you're in trouble, but when you have a lot of problems, they end up solving each other.
* [[The Thrawn Trilogy|Grand Admiral Thrawn]] generally relied on the [[Batman Gambit]], and was a master of it, but used this one once by launching a staggered attack against many New Republic worlds - if they failed to send backup to the places he attacked, he captured planets without a fight; if they did send backup, they left his true target undefended.
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* In ''[[The Art of War]]'', Sun Tzu advises that if your enemy is attacking one of your areas, you should respond by attacking his weakest ally. Your enemy will thus be forced to lift his siege and come to his ally's aid. Oh sure, he ''could'' ignore the plea for assistance and keep up the attack, but then all his allies will desert him.
* In ''[[The Merchant Princes Series|The Merchant Princes]]'' by [[Charles Stross]], the hidden enemies in the first book set assassins against both Miriam and Olga (and a hired rapist at the latter) with the intention of destroying [[The Clan]] by restarting a civil war. If Miriam is killed and her death can be blamed on one half of the Clan for inheritance-related reasons, that starts up the civil war. If Olga (Miriam's boyfriend's [[Arranged Marriage|fiancee]]) is killed or raped (and [[I Have You Now, My Pretty|forced to]] [[Values Dissonance|marry her rapist]]), and it looks like Miriam arranged it to get her out of the way so she could marry Roland, the war starts up again for a different reason. For bonus Xanatos points, the rapist was given evidence that implicated Miriam to Olga, and Olga's an [[Action Girl]] who didn't take that well; she would have killed Miriam if Miriam hadn't been convincingly and completely befuddled about the whole situation.
* Lord Vetinari pulls one in the [[Discworld]] book ''[[
{{quote|"He [Vimes] wondered what it was like in the Patrician's mind. All cold and shiny, he thought, all blued steel and icicles and little wheels clicking along like a huge clock. The kind of mind that would carefully consider its own downfall and turn it to advantage."}}
** Granny Weatherwax pulls one in ''[[
** And then there's her gambit in the short story
* In ''[[Percy Jackson & the Olympians]] Book 2: The Sea of Monsters'', Luke reveals near the end that he {{spoiler|planned to let the good guys have the golden fleece in the end, anyway.}} At the end of the book, {{spoiler|the tree is healed, the camp is saved, and Thalia lives again, giving Kronos a second chance to convert a child of Zeus, Hades, or Poseidon to his cause.}}
** "It's just business, Jack."
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{{quote|'''The Sorrow:''' [http://gigaville.com/comic.php?id{{=}}255 And you are as wily as ever. You manipulated the situation so that no matter what happened, you got what you wanted].}}
** Okay, technically it's the same plan as in the game, but the rehash of Psycho Mantis's scheme to activate Metal Gear contains almost every feasible Xanatos based trope (including pileups and gilligans mixed with dramatic irony for the reader).
* Employed by Nale in ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' when he lures the Order to Cliffport by kidnapping Roy's sister Julia, then has his new Linear Guild attack. The Guild eventually gets defeated, but while they were distracted, Nale swapped places with his good twin, Elan—leading the Order to think they had won, when in fact the outcome was exactly what Nale had been seeking (his brother shipped off to jail and him safely undercover in the Order).
** Redcloak outlines a much higher stakes Xanatos Gambit in the prequel story ''[[Start of Darkness]]'': {{spoiler|he intends to capture one of the five Gates that holds back the world's [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] so his god, the Dark One, can use it to blackmail the other gods into giving the goblins equal standing among the player races (human, elf, dwarf, etc.). If he should accidentally unleash this [[Eldritch Abomination]] and unravel all of Creation in the process, the gods can then remake the world -- but this time around, the Dark One would have a say in how the goblins were treated.}}
***
** Xykon pulls one himself against Redcloak, that Redcloak has yet to recover from.
** Elan's father, [[Magnificent Bastard|General Tarquin]], outlines his plan to be a king or a legend [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0763.html here], with the bonus that [[Just Between You and Me|explaining the gambit to the target]] ''[[Justified Trope|helps him get the better outcome]]''.
*** Elan's primary trait of being [[Genre Savvy]] is subverted in his father, who's [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] to the point that it horrifies Elan beyond words once he finally figures it all out.
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** Or taking everything to the range and shooting it.
** [[Running Gag|Or]] if you were rich enough launch it into space.
* In March,{{when}} Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper tried to get a budget passed: either he gets his budget passed, or an election gets called where he wins more seats. He won a majority this year.{{when}}
* The [[Western Terrorists|Norwegian terrorist]] [[Gunman with Three Names|Anders Behring Breivik]] appears to have tried to pull off his own twisted version of this. Either he would be arrested by the police and use the ensuing trial and media storm to preach his beliefs, or he would be killed and become a martyr for the far-right, his message conveyed through his manifesto. As he lived, Norwegian police are now{{when}} working to prevent him from spreading his message through the media. "Unfotunately", he overestimated the public's taste for idiotic racist tracts. As with other examples, [[They Just Didn't Care|it's too long for anyone to consider sitting down to read.]] Also, there is quite a bit of disappointment it wasn't 777,777 words long when it was so close to being so. (Numerology is very big amongst either far-fringe movement.)
* Terrorist organizations in general can be quite good at setting these up when they are centered [[Human Shield|in and around population centers]]. Either no military action is taken against them, and they continue activity unmolested, or [[Pyrrhic Victory|the collateral damage inflicted]] [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|by those attempting to harm their positions and interests earns them new allies]] among the local populace, who have lost innocent loved ones [[Not So Different|due to the actions of the terrorist organization's enemies]].
** Additionally, people who lost their loved ones might get their revenge (either personally by [[Pay Evil Unto Evil|committing similar acts]] or indirectly through police or military actions), giving the terrorist a possibility to [[Playing the Victim Card|present themselves as victims]] to get the favour of more pacifistic audiences.
* If a country accuses a person for being a spy (regardless of whether or not he or she is one), then the country representing the accused cannot get a convincing argument otherwise. The defending country cannot disclose the person is a spy and denying it just makes it all the more suspicious. Thus the defending country cannot win in this situation.
** [[Batman Gambit|Unless that spy was meant to be revealed in the first place]] as [[Kansas City Shuffle|
* Nixon going to China can be seen as one: his goal being to 'open it up' but a secondary goal achieved regardless of the first is faning Soviet fears of a China-America alliance which he exploited in later summits.
* In Real Life [[Stage Magician|Magic Tricks]], there is a technique called "[[wikipedia:Equivocation (magic)#Magician.27s Choice|Magician's Choice]]", which combines this with the [[Indy Ploy]]. The point is, as with most magic tricks, to make it [[Rule of Perception|appear like]] a [[Gambit Roulette]].
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** Phrase the question so it's ambiguous whether you're making or discounting a claim ("You don't have a blue car, do you? No? I thought not/Yes? I thought so")
** Turn a literal statement into a metaphor ("Is it your father? No? But he was like a father to you, wasn't he?")
** Of course, it is fairly easy for someone who [[Out-Gambitted|knows how it works]] to trick the psychic into something like channeling [[
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