History Main / ConvenientlyTimedDistraction

* In ''Comicbook/StarWarsLegacy'', Wolf Sazen and Darth Azard are duelling one another when Azard suddenly feels the power of his master, Darth Krayt, reverberating through the Force. He stops fighting Sazen and calls out to Krayt, only for Sazen to cut him down.

* In ''Literature/{{Murderess}}'', 'Hat Lad' is momentarily distracted by a pebble that falls out of his pocket while fighting Professor Cole. Neither has hitherto been able to overcome the other, but as soon as that happens, [[ForWantOfANail Cole uses it to successfully lunge a spear through his heart]].

* In the ''Blog/BetterBonesAU'', while Squirrelflight revealing [[spoiler:she isn't the Three's biological mother]] doesn't stop Ashfur from trying to kill them as in canon, it does distract him enough that she is able to land a blow against him.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':

!!Examples

* ''Franchise/OnePiece''

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''

* Weather Report and Enrico Pucci's duel in ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'' comes to an end when [[spoiler:Jolyne crashes a car nearby, distracting Weather from delivering the final blow and allowing Pucci to move in for the kill.]]

* In the ''{{Series/Highlander}}'' fic [[http://hlfiction.net/viewstory.php?sid=35&warning=Mature%20Content Seeing it Through, ]]Methos, blind from a sadistic immortal destroying his eyes, is pushed into a sword fight. He manages for a bit but falls backward and fears he’s about to die. Duncan, however, arrives on the scene and Methos’s opponent turns his attention to Duncan, a mistake that lets Methos jump up and strike a killing blow.

* In ''Film/{{Cellular}}'', when Ethan and [[spoiler: Tanner]] take Ryan someplace else on the waterfront to kill him, Ryan's friend, Chad, comes along to see what's going on giving Ryan the distraction he needs to escape by jumping in the water.

* In ''Film/StreetFighter'', Chun-Li has Bison on the ropes and seemingly is about to kill him when other heroes burst in to help, distracting her and letting Bison escape to gas them all.

* Parodied in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', Jane comments that they'll need a diversion to overpower the men holding the crew prisoner and at that moment River appears and launches into a ReasonYouSuckSpeech to the lead captor in a British accent. However, it also distracts the crew who forget to take advantage of the situation.
-->'''Jayne:''' [Whispering to the crew after River leaves] That there - exactly the kind of diversion we could have used.

* This is ultimately revealed to have happened in the backstory of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition.'' [[spoiler:The Inquisitor unintentionally interrupted the Elder One's ritual, which was using Divine Justinia as a sacrifice. S/he created just enough of a distraction that the Divine was able to knock the focal orb out of the Elder One's hand, enabling the Inquisitor to grab it and resulting in their escape from the explosion and the acquisition of the Anchor on their left hand.]]

* Deconstructed in ''VisualNovel/DiesIrae''. Due to Shirou's reckless way of fighting he often causes this trope to occur for his friend Ren. Problem is that Ren is about as in on the distractions as his opponents which results in him far too frequently ending up in even more of a fix as whoever he is fighting more often than not manages to regain their bearings faster than him. In fact, the amount of times he actually managed to use this trope to his advantage are easily counted.

* ''Webcomic/{{Nebula}}'': Jupiter's incredibly hammy monologue to Venus and Neptune inadvertently provides a distraction for his recently captured pet comet, allowing it to sneak away without him noticing.

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* Several levels of ''VideoGame/SniperEliteV2'' have a mechanic where you can maintain stealth by firing at the same time there is a loud background noise such as an explosion. [[VideoGame/SniperElite3 The]] [[VideoGame/SniperElite4 sequels]] have it as well.

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* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', season 18 "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E8CockMagic Cock Magic]]", when the cops arrive to arrest everyone for partaking in [[ItMakesSenseInContext illegal cock magic fighting]], Randy appears on stage and performs his version of "cock" magic. While the cops are distracted, all the people who were involved in the cock magic fights escaped.

* In ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', President Nixon comes out of the bunker and tells Magneto to spare them and kill only him but Magneto however disagrees and still plans to kill them. While Beast is dealing with a Sentinel, he uses his serum to temporarily suppress his mutant powers which causes the Sentinel to turn its attention to Magneto who easily tears apart the Sentinel. With Magneto distracted, [[spoiler: Mystique reveals herself to be disguised as Nixon and slightly grazes Magneto with a plastic gun and knocks him out.]]

** In Season 7 "Bart the Fink", Superintendant Chalmers is returning Agnes Skinner from a date when they are greeted by Seymour in an apron. Skinner wishes for a distraction to take attention away from his embarrassing situation, and at that moment Krusty flies by on his airplane, wailing loudly. "That'll do", says Seymour.

* In ''Literature/{{Murderess}}'', �Hat Lad� is momentarily distracted by a pebble that falls out of his pocket while fighting Professor Cole. Neither has hitherto been able to overcome the other, but as soon as that happens, [[ForWantOfANail Cole uses it to successfully lunge a spear through his heart]].

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' season 2 "No Free Ride", when Spongebob catches Mrs. Puff, who's wearing a ski mask to conceal her face, stealing his boat, Spongebob tries to pepper spray her but accidentally sprays himself. Mrs. Puff takes advantage of this by kicking him out of the boat, although it doesn't stop him from chasing her.

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* In ''Film/{{Cellular}}'', when Ethan and [[spoiler: Tanner]] take Ryan someplace else in waterfront to kill him, Ryan's friend, Chad, comes along to see what's going on giving Ryan the distraction he needs to escape by jumping in the water.
* In ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985'', John takes advantage of this twice. After Rhodes and his soldiers locks Sarah and Bill in the zombie corral and forces John, the only helicopter pilot, to fly him and his men away, Sarah and Bill escapes through the corral. While the soldiers watch Sarah and Bill escape, John knocks out Torrez, who was holding him at gunpoint, but is subdued by Steele. When they hear Miguel using the elevator from above and Rhodes sends his men to investigate it, while Rhodes is trying to wake up Torrez, John uses this moment to tackle Rhodes, knocks him out, steals his guns, and then leaves to go rescue Sarah and Bill.
* In the reboot of ''Film/ThePinkPanther2006'', while chasing the assassin who tried to kill Xania, Clouseau and Ponton decides to split up to cut off the assassin. When Ponton catches up to the assassin and holds the assassin at gunpoint, Clouseau catches up and accidentally [[TheDoorSlamsYou slams a door open in front of Ponton]], knocking him down. While Clouseau checks to see if Ponton is okay, the assassin resumes running away.
* In ''Film/StarTrek2009'', Nero has caught Kirk by the throat and is seemingly going to choke him to death, until he's told the ''Jellyfish'', the Vulcan ship they've been using as an explosives source, has been stolen by Spock. Immediately he runs off to deal with this, leaving Kirk to fight his minion instead.
* In the 1991 ''Film/ToySoldiers'', when Cali takes Billy hostage and holds him in Headmaster Gould's office while the Special Forces tries to enter before he can detonate the bomb, Dean Parker jumps through the window to kill Cali but Cali shoots him first, wounding him. With Cali distracted, the Special Forces enters the office and one of them shoots Cali in the back of his head, killing him.
* In ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', President Nixon comes out of the bunker and tells Magneto to spare them and kill only him but Magneto however disagrees and still plans to kill them. While Beast is dealing with a Sentinel, he uses his serum to temporary suppress his mutant powers which causes the Sentinel to turn its attention to Magneto who easily torn apart the Sentinel. With Magneto distracted, [[spoiler: Mystique reveals herself to be disguised as Nixon and slightly grazes Magneto with a plastic gun and knocks him out.]]