History GambitPileup / WesternAnimation

* Pretty much the entire two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' was a huge pileup between The Light, the Justice League, The Reach, Young Justice, and more than a few alien civilisations. By the penultimate episode it was revealed that from the beginning [[spoiler:The Reach had funded The Light to help them take over Earth]] but both sides were playing increasingly complex gambits to betray one another, usually relying on the Young Justice team in a massive series of {{Batman Gambit}}s. This all came to a head during the [[spoiler:Reach/Light peace summit]] which was secretly engineered by [[spoiler:Aqualad]]. All of this was moot however as it was revealed in the finale that [[spoiler:Vandal Savage, Lex Luthor, and ''Darkseid'']] had come out on top.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/HotWheelsBattleForce5 Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5]]'': [[spoiler: The penultimate episode of Season 2, “Rumble In The Jungle”, sees nearly all the series’ factions converging on Planet Vandal. The Battle Force 5, accompanied by the Kharamanos leader Tromp, travel to the Caldera, the power supply for the Vandal homeworld, intending to detonate a special bomb that would destroy all the Vandals’ technology for good, permanently neutralizing them as a threat. In addition to fighting against Kalus and his men, they have to survive against Grimian, who, even after being disgraced, still has many Vandals who are loyal to him, and he still seeks to overthrow Kalus as Vandal Warlord. Grimian is supported in this endeavor by Krytus, the Red Sentient Force, and the Red Sark. Grimian was secretly working for Krytus the entire time, and was the one who suggested that Krytus launch a combined assault with him after Grimian failed to overthrow Kalus twice before and Krytus [[YouHaveFailedMe nearly killed him for his failures.]] Krytus goes along with Grimian’s idea, but secretly intends to betray him, intending to have the 2 warring Vandal factions weaken each other before pressing in on both sides to [[KillEmAll kill all of the Vandals,]] while also sending Kytren and Kyburi to shut down the Caldera and lock down the Vandal homeworld themselves. In the end, the Battle Force and Tromp succeed in their mission, destroying all the Vandals’ technology for good, but Tromp is [[HeroicSacrifice forced to remain in the Caldera to finish the job,]] leaving him stranded and alone on the Vandal homeworld. The Red Sentients are beaten, but they simply respawn and move on from their defeat. Kalus, meanwhile, survives the battle, and finally manages to regain the loyalty of all the Vandals, before presumably [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves killing Grimian for his treachery.]]]]

* ''[[WesternAnimation/HotWheelsBattleForce5 Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5]]'': [[spoiler: The penultimate episode of Season 2, “Rumble In The Jungle”, sees nearly all the series’ factions converging on Planet Vandal. The Battle Force 5, accompanied by the Kharamanos leader Tromp, travel to the Caldera, the power supply for the Vandal homeworld, intending to detonate a special bomb that would destroy all the Vandals’ technology for good, permanently neutralizing them as a threat. In addition to fighting against Kalus and his men, they have to survive against Grimian, who, even after being disgraced, still has many Vandals who are loyal to him, and he still seeks to overthrow Kalus as Vandal Warlord. Grimian is supported in this endeavor by Krytus, the Red Sentient Force, and the Red Sark. Grimian was secretly working for Krytus the entire time, and was the one who suggested that Krytus launch a combined assault with him after Grimian failed to overthrow Kalus twice before and Krytus nearly killed him for his failures. Krytus goes along with Grimian’s idea, but secretly intends to betray him, intending to have the 2 warring Vandal factions weaken each other before pressing in on both sides to kill all of the Vandals, while also sending Kytren and Kyburi to shut down the Caldera and lock down the Vandal homeworld themselves. In the end, the Battle Force and Tromp succeed in their mission, destroying all the Vandals’ technology for good, but Tromp is forced to remain in the Caldera to finish the job, leaving him stranded and alone on the Vandal homeworld. The Red Sentients are beaten, but they simply respawn and move on from their defeat. Kalus, meanwhile, survives the battle, and finally manages to regain the loyalty of all the Vandals, before presumably killing Grimian for his treachery.]]

* In the first season finale of ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' Tarantulas, Megatron, Blackarachnia and the Maximals all had their own individual plans for dealing with the destruction of the planet by the alien Vok and almost all of their plans hinged on the different known factors of everyone else's plans. Tarantulas was originally planning on escaping the planet in a stasis pod, Blackarachnia secretly planned to steal his stasis pod for herself and use it to escape, Megatron purposefully allowed the two of them to go about stealing said pod with the plan of forcing that pod (with the escapee still inside) to become a makeshift bomb used to destroy the alien Planet Buster. Optimus and the Maximals planned to use the pod for the same purpose, but with the idea that Optimus would escape the pod at the last second (Megatron's version, which ultimately won out, involved Optimus not escaping and dying in the explosion.) Interestingly, after Optimus died in the explosion (which Megatron had originally meant for one or both of the spiders), Tarantulas's reaction was that of smug laughter, the kind he only ever does when he's just pulled something deceitful off. This leaves the implication that Tarantulas was well aware of Megatron's schemes too, and that his plan was to ready the pod and assume that either Blackarachnia, Inferno (on Megatron's orders) or Optimus would intercede (all tried to) and would die in Megatron's scheme, rather than him. Considering his ultimate scheme [[spoiler:is to destroy the Ark and both Autobots and Decepticons to negate the existence of ''all'' Cybertronians which, it turns out, Tarantulas is not one of,]] it wouldn't have made sense for him to be willing to leave the planet anyway. Claims that he wanted to were likely for Blackarachnia and Waspinator's benefit, so that it would get back to Megatron. Thus, ultimately, it's Tarantulas pulling all the strings. When all but ''two'' Predacons, and several non-Predacons, try their hand at TheStarscream, this is to be expected.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' episode "Go Fish". The penguins steal fish from a delivery truck so they don't have to eat the nutritional substitute the zoo is giving to them, except Julien sabotages them and switches the crates. Skipper anticipates this, switching the crates before they got back to the zoo, except Julien switched the crates at the pier before they were even loaded. This is all followed by Skipper and Julien arguing that they each switched the crates in front of each other, until [[MindScrew Skipper takes off a mask revealing him to be Julien]]. The other Julien (Skipper) then takes off his mask and the real Julien wonders "If you are me and I am you, then who must we both be?" Eventually, [[spoiler:they crack open the crates, only to find out they're both full of the nutritional substitute and the flamingo that helped the penguins rob the truck took the fish already]].

* Pretty much the entire two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' was a huge pileup between The Light, the Justice League, The Reach, Young Justice, and more than a few alien civilisations. By the penultimate episode it was revealed that from the beginning [[spoiler:The Reach had funded The Light to help them take over Earth]] but both sides were playing increasingly complex gambits to betray one another, usually relying on the Young Justice team in a massive series of {{Batman Gambit}}s. This all came to a head during the [[spoiler:Reach/Light peace summit]] which was secretly engineered by [[spoiler:Aqualad]]. All of this was moot however as it was revealed in the finale that [[spoiler:Vandal Savage, Lex Luthor, and ''Darkseid'']] had come out on top.

* Played straight, then parodied/subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episode, "Remy Rides Again". Jorgen made Juandissimo make Remy plot to separate Timmy from his godparents. Seconds after this is revealed, Cosmo says, "''Not so fast!''"...[[WhatAnIdiot only to point out that the pileup had been explained too fast for him.]]

* Pretty much the entirety of ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen''. Pretty much ''everyone'' has a long-term plan of some sort, be it Magneto, Senator Kelly, the Weapon X program, Master Mold, Mr. Sinister, the Inner Circle, or Professor X himself. This all comes to a head in the GrandFinale, when ''nobody's'' schemes go as planned.

* The ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' season two finale, "Day of Reckoning," has one of these involving three different factions: Magneto and his acolytes; Mystique; and Bolivar Trask, with the X-Men and Brotherhood being stringed across for good measure.
* Pretty much the entirety of ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen''. Pretty much ''everyone'' has a long-term plan of some sort, be it Magneto, Senator Kelly, the Weapon X program, Master Mold, Mr. Sinister, the Inner Circle, and Professor X himself. This all comes to a head in the GrandFinale, when ''nobody's'' schemes go as planned.

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' can go this way pretty frequently. The season-three episode "Picnic at Hanging Dork" is one of the best examples: Courtney and Sierra are planning to vote off Gwen; Heather says she'll support them, but is actually considering voting off Courtney; Gwen is trying to get Cody to help her vote off Courtney (including by flirting); Cody is trying to get her to vote off Sierra; Alejandro is trying to seduce Courtney to throw off their team and make Heather jealous; Duncan is working with Alejandro but is planning to eventually betray him...

* Played straight, then parodied/subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episode, "Remy Rides Again". Jorgen made Juandissimo make Remy plot to separate Timmy from his godparents. Seconds after this is revealed, Cosmo says, "''Not so fast!''"... [[WhatAnIdiot only to point out that the pileup had been explained too fast for him]].

'''Cartman:''' ...okay, let's see now... Aha! Umm... goddamn it!
* The second season of ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' ends with everybody trying to put the screws on everybody else. Nerissa is trying to get the Heart of Earth by killing Lillian's cat familiar Napoleon at the same time that the girls have [[spoiler:let Phobos out of prison to take ''her'' two hearts. Phobos]] decides to screw the girls over by using the power of Nerissa's hearts once he takes them, but the girls planned for this by [[spoiler:convincing Raythor to do a HeelFaceTurn. Raythor tricks Phobos]] into invading Kandrakar, which would cause him to relinquish control of the hearts he took, but just before [[spoiler:Phobos]] crosses the plane into Kandrakar, [[spoiler:Cedric eats him and gains his powers AND Nerissa]]'s. Also, Raphael Sylla and the government, who watched the final battle, planned to discover the girls' secret identities by registering Sylla as a teacher at the girls' school, but [[ScrewedByTheNetwork we probably won't get to see that]]. Note that, while most of this wasn't there in the original comic, the started Sylla-Gambit was eventually pulled of in it and even worked - until the oracle pulls a literal DeusExMachina (it's even {{lampshade|Hanging}}d) and hits the reset button.

* In the first season finale of ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' Tarantulas, Megatron, Blackarachnia and the Maximals all had their own individual plans for dealing with the destruction of the planet by the alien Vok and almost all of their plans hinged on the different known factors of everyone else's plans. Tarantulas was originally planning on escaping the planet in a stasis pod, Blackarachnia secretly planned to steal his stasis pod for herself and use it to escape, Megatron purposefully allowed the two of them to go about stealing said pod with the plan of forcing that pod (with the escapee still inside) to become a makeshift bomb used to destroy the alien Planet Buster. Optimus and the Maximals planned to use the pod for the same purpose, but with the idea that Optimus would escape the pod at the last second (Megatron's version, which ultimately won out, involved Optimus not escaping and dying in the explosion.) Interestingly, after Optimus died in the explosion (which Megatron had originally meant for one or both of the spiders), Tarantulas's reaction was that of smug laughter, the kind he only ever does when he's just pulled something deceitful off. This leaves the implication that Tarantulas was well aware of Megatron's schemes too, and that his plan was to ready the pod and assume that either Blackarachnia, Inferno (on Megatron's orders) or Optimus would intercede (all tried to) and would die in Megatron's scheme, rather than him. Considering his ultimate scheme [[spoiler:is to destroy the Ark and both Autobots and Decepticons to negate the existence of ''all'' Cybertronians which, it turns out, Tarantulas is not one of]], it wouldn't have made sense for him to be willing to leave the planet anyway. Claims that he wanted to were likely for Blackarachnia and Waspinator's benefit, so that it would get back to Megatron. Thus, ultimately, it's Tarantulas pulling all the strings. When all but ''two'' Predacons, and several non-Predacons, try their hand at TheStarscream, this is to be expected.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' season 4 finale "Operation: P.R.O.M.", between Col.Hunter, Mr. Doe and Mr. Cardholder, Monstroso, Treister, Sky Pilot, and Molotov Cocktease.