History Main / CriticalHesitationBlunder

* Toward the end of ''Literature/TheDarkForest'', [[spoiler:Zhang Beihai realizes that [[TheArk Starship Earth]] lacks the supplies needed to reach another star system, and that the five ships in the fleet (including his own, ''Natural Selection'') are inevitably going to attack each other for their provisions. He prepares to fire on the others to get the drop on them, but his conscience causes him to hesitates, and in those few seconds, ''Ultimate Law'' fires first, killing him and his crew]].

* In the ''Toys/{{BIONICLE}}'' AlternateUniverse of "The Kingdom", Matoro hesitated a second too long, and was trapped outside Karda Nui just as Mata Nui died, unable to use the Mask of Life to revive him. This resulted in the Matoran Universe becoming uninhabitable and everyone evacuating to build a new society on the surface, where Matoro is ignored at best and reviled at worst.

* ''Fanfic/AllForLuz'': In chapter 11, [[TheBrute Thomas's]] moment of indecision on whether to kill Luz or not on Kennedy's orders costs him his life as Luz strikes first by using her VibrationManipulation Quirk to tear apart his innards. [[spoiler:She then proceeds [[PowerParasite to steal]] his SuperStrength Quirk and proceeds to use it to kill most of his teammates in her RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

** ''Fanfic/AllForLuz'': In chapter 11, Thomas's moment of indecision on whether to kill Luz or not on Kennedy's orders costs him his life as Luz strikes first by using her VibrationManipulation Quirk to tear apart his innards. [[spoiler:She then proceeds [[PowerParasite to steal]] his SuperStrength Quirk and proceeds to use it to kill most of his teammates in her RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

-->-- ''[[Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem The Dark Forest]]''

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* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'': When Tai Lung goes on his initial rebellious rampage to take the Dragon Scroll, Shifu, who'd trained Tai Lung in Kung Fu since he was small, prepares to fight him but suddenly sees Tai Lung as a young cub and can't bring himself to do it, which allows Tail Lung to knock him aside. Master Oogway steps in at the last second and quickly disables Tai Lung.

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

* ''[[Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem The Dark Forest]]'': Toward the end of the book, [[spoiler:Zhang Beihai realizes that [[TheArk Starship Earth]] lacks the supplies needed to reach another star system, and that the five ships in the fleet (including his own, ''Natural Selection'') are inevitably going to attack each other for their provisions. He prepares to fire on the others to get the drop on them, but his conscience causes him to hesitates, and in those few seconds, ''Ultimate Law'' fires first, killing him and his crew]].

* ''Literature/KnightsOfTheBorrowedDark:'' the fight between Grey and [[spoiler:the Opening Boy]] ends when [[spoiler:the Boy cries out "as high and afraid as a child", and Grey stays his hand long enough for the Boy to [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impale him on a pair of long claws]], though Grey turns this into a TakingYouWithMe]].

* Lampshaded in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' where the old knight who instructs Brienne of Tarth in how to fight mentions a promising would-be knight who was killed in his first battle because he hesitated to FinishHim and was killed instead. To prevent this, he makes Brienne kill animals at a slaughter-yard until she overcomes any 'womanly qualms' about killing.

** A subversion in the second pilot episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E3WhereNoManHasGoneBefore Where No Man Has Gone Before]]". Captain Kirk is fighting Gary Mitchell while Mitchell's psionic powers are temporarily suppressed. As Kirk is about to smash in Mitchell's head with a rock, he hesitates for a moment as he says "Gary, forgive me." Because of the delay Mitchell regains his powers and Kirk loses his chance to kill him. A few seconds later Kirk gets lucky and manages to kill Mitchell anyway.
** The episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E13Obsession Obsession]]" has the crew dealing with a mysterious cloud entity that preys on organic lifeforms. When he first saw it as a young lieutenant, Kirk hesitated before attacking, and the creature went on to slaughter most of the crew. Eleven years later, ''Enterprise'' crewman Ensign Garrovick also hesitates before attacking it, and it goes on to kill a number of ''Enterprise'' crew. Kirk comes down on the ensign pretty harshly for this. Later subverted when it becomes apparent their phasers wouldn't have done anything to it anyway. Still, when finally a plan is hatched to destroy the creature, Kirk and Garrovick take the most dangerous position, to get some closure.
* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': In "Nepenthe", Elnor is surprised when Narissa points a knife at him because their Qowat Milat-Zhat Vash DuelToTheDeath is supposed to be unarmed as custom dictates, and she takes advantage of his hesitation to throw a second knife at [[spoiler:Hugh's]] neck, which kills him.

* ''Videogame/ResidentEvil3Remake'' reveals that this is how Marvin Branagh got infected. He was about to put down the zombified Brad Vickers when Brad had a brief moment of lucidity, causing Marvin to hesitate long enough for Brad to lunge and bite him.

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': this is what does Gilgamesh in at the conclusion of the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route. Gilgamesh is utterly disdainful of Shirou, believing him to be lower than dirt and not worth his time in fighting. However, when Shirou surprises him and manages to get an upper hand in battle, Gilgamesh finally catches on that he might have to take this seriously. He has one weapon, Ea, that Shirou has no defense against and he would absolutely win if he used it, but he's so disgusted at having to use Ea against an "unworthy" opponent like Shirou that he hesitates for just a second in pulling it out. This momentary lapse gives Shirou the opportunity to strike a finishing blow.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In the finale of ''{{Franchise/RWBY}}'' Volume 7, Team JNPR faces off against Neo, a MasterOfIllusion who at one point uses her powers to disguise herself as Nora in order to steal the Relic of Knowledge off Oscar when he lets his guard down. As she escapes, Ren tries to strike her down, only for Neo to switch her TechnicolorEyes to [[{{ShapeshifterGuiltTrip}} Nora's light blue while flashing Ren a look of fear.]] Ren and Nora are close ChildhoodFriends [[spoiler: who also received a RelationshipUpgrade a few episodes before this,]] so it's not surprising when Ren freezes up with a horrified expression, giving Neo enough time to take him down and easily retreat. While it's only a moment of shock, the mere notion of hurting Nora is enough to bring Ren to tears.

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', Lee seems all but victorious when his [[IzunaDrop Primary Lotus]] lands, [[spoiler:but in his brief twinge of pain when preparing the attack, his opponent escapes]].

* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''. Eren is fighting the Female Titan in the Forest of Giant Trees when he realizes that [[spoiler:it's Annie, by looking at her fighting style]] and promptly gets his Titan form decapitated while he was gawking.
* In the finale of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003',' [[spoiler:Envy shapeshifts into his true form while taking a beating from Ed, a form that reveals that they are effectively half-brothers. This revelation causes Ed to halt for a moment, a moment Envy is quick to seize in order to impale Ed, killing him]].

!! Examples:

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', Lee seems all but victorious when his [[IzunaDrop Primary Lotus]] lands, [[spoiler:but in his brief twinge of pain when preparing the attack, his opponent escapes.]]
* In the finale of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' [[spoiler:Envy shapeshifts into his true form while taking a beating from Ed, a form that reveals that they are effectively half-brothers. This revelation causes Ed to halt for a moment, a moment Envy is quick to seize in order to impale Ed, killing him]].

[[folder:Film]]

* This kicks off the plot of ''Film/WarGames'': when the Pentagon conducts a SecretTest of the nation's nuclear arsenal, a worrisome number of silos failed to initiate a launch. This leads to the Pentagon passing launch control to their AIIsACrapshoot warfare simulation computer. This computer gets hacked by TheHero because EverythingIsOnline, triggering a Doomsday countdown.
* ''Film/StarTrekInsurrection'': When Picard and Ru'afo confront each other for the last time, while surrounded by flammable gas, Picard asks if Ru'afo's really willing to risk firing phasers there. When Ru'afo hesitates, Picard fires directly into the gas, knocking Ru'afo off.
* After [[spoiler:Palmer]] is revealed to be a Thing in ''Film/TheThing1982'', Windows has the opportunity to KillItWithFire using his flamethrower, but hesitates on getting a good look at the Thing's malformed features. [[spoiler:At which point the Palmer-Thing's head splits open and turns into a giant mouth, before mauling the hell of out Windows, infecting him and forcing [=MacReady=] to burn them both with his own flamethrower]].

* One of Christopher Anvil's ''Interstellar Patrol'' stories opens with Colonel Sanders (the protagonists' commanding officer) losing a simulated wargame, because he wasted a 'precious fraction of a second' congratulating himself on his performance.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}''

* At the end of ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'', [[spoiler:specifically in Ending D, A2 outfights 9S and maneuvers into a position to kill him until she remembers 2B's DyingWish to take care of 9S. This gives 9S the small window he needs to kill A2 [[MutualKill although, in doing so, he accidentally impales himself on her sword when they fall over]].]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' episode "[[Recap/DarkwingDuckS1E50TimeAndPunishment Time and Punishment]]", Dark Warrior Duck (a BadFuture version of Darkwing who went KnightTemplar) encroaches on Gosalyn, ranting about her "delinquent" tendencies, and aims a gun at her. However, he can't bring himself to shoot his beloved daughter, and while he's frozen in position, Launchpad sneaks up on him and knocks him out with a frying pan, thus keeping him from preventing her from returning to the past.

* ''Literature/DeathStar'' retroactively adds one to ''Film/ANewHope'', explaining the JustInTime destruction of the Death Star as a result of the hesitation of the soldier in control of the ship's cannon (without which, at best, both the Death Star and Yavin IV would have been destroyed).

* In the finale of {{Franchise/RWBY}} Volume 7, Team JNPR faces off against Neo, a MasterOfIllusion who at one point uses her powers to disguise herself as Nora in order to steal the Relic of Knowledge off Oscar when he lets his guard down. As she escapes, Ren tries to strike her down, only for Neo to switch her TechnicolorEyes to [[{{ShapeshifterGuiltTrip}} Nora's light blue while flashing Ren a look of fear.]] Ren and Nora are close ChildhoodFriends [[spoiler: who also received a RelationshipUpgrade a few episodes before this,]] so it's not surprising when Ren freezes up with a horrified expression, giving Neo enough time to take him down and easily retreat. While it's only a moment of shock, the mere notion of hurting Nora is enough to bring Ren to tears.

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->He had imagined that his heart had grown as hard as iron through the arduous procession of more than two centuries, but he had overlooked something hidden in the deepest part of his soul, and had hesitated before making the final decision. He tried to restrain the trembling of his heart, and it was that last moment's softness that killed him and everyone on board ''Natural Selection''. After the month-long face-off in the darkness, he was just a few seconds slower than the other ship was.

A victory in a fight decided by one character's hesitation (be it sentimental reason or shock) and the other capitalizing on it. Sub-trope to DiabolusExMachina. Often goes hand-in-hand with IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight. Usually exploited to deadly advantage by {{Combat Pragmatist}}s and particularly ruthless villains.
Compare DeerInTheHeadlights for examples based more in fear, and ConvenientlyTimedDistraction for similar examples regarding distractions.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' short, ''Alive''. Tracer has Widowmaker pinned, but instead of killing her, the former asks "Why?" (likely because [[spoiler:Tracer knew Amelie Lacroix]]) allowing Widow to make a clean escape.

->He had imagined that his heart had grown as hard as iron through the arduous procession of more than two centuries, but he had overlooked something hidden in the deepest part of his soul, and had hesitated before making the final decision. He tried to restrain the trembling of his heart, and it was that last moment's softness that killed him and everyone on board ''[[spoiler:Natural Selection]]''. After the month-long face-off in the darkness, he was just a few seconds slower than the other ship was.

* In the finale of the 2003 ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' anime [[spoiler:Envy shapeshifts into his true form while taking a beating from Ed, a form that reveals that they are effectively half-brothers. This revelation causes Ed to halt for a moment, a moment Envy is quick to seize in order to impale Ed, killing him]].