History Main / DangerouslyGenreSavvy

* "Disney/SleepingBeauty"'s Maleficent and her raven are made of this, the raven figures out that Aurora was hiding in a forest cottage after seeing the fairies' streams of magic, knowing that if the good fairies are there, so is Aurora. Maleficent has Aurora fall into her trap while the fairies are leaving her alone, then captures Prince Phillip and chains him because he's the only one to break the spell. Also the story implies fairies are powerless without their wands, so [[CrazyAwesome she turns to a dragon which nearly kills him]], something that doesn't even have a need a wand to begin with. If not for SupernaturalAid in effect, she would've won.

**** The Season 2 Finale is the golden moment for Megatron. [[spoiler: When Optimus destroys the Omega Lock]], he does not break down in outrage for two reasons: 1) He knows what the implications of Optimus' actions are, and how he can turn them in his favour, and 2) [[spoiler: he already discovered the Autobots' base.]]

* [[AiIsACrapshot Crazy AI Two]] in PaperinikNewAdventures is this in spades:before reveling himself for the first time he manipulates TheHero in shutting down One(AKA the only entity on Earth able to stop him).In his third apparence he gains control of an army of alien invaders,but is prevident enough to create a backup plan to save himself if his attack doesn't work.His last apperance shows that he programmed his auditory sensors to not hear his creator's vocal password,something that would delete him.
** [[WellIntentionedExtremist Morgan Fairfax]] also qualifies: he separates and disguises the two keys necessary to stop his DoomsdayMachine(while keeping them close enough if '''he''' needs them) and even if someone menage to find the keys he will still need a code to shut it down-

* The ''Anime/YuGiOh'' universe revolves around the fact that [[DuelsDecideEverything villains have to defeat someone in a duel]] before killing them/stealing their ArtifactOfDoom[=/=]stealing their soul/activating their plan to TakeOverTheWorld. In ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', Saiou makes history by being Dangerously Genre Savvy to this convention, several times in the space of a few episodes:

** As an overall, Saiou has spent the entire season predicting the future and sending minions at Judai - he's realized Judai can ScrewDestiny and has defeated every minion thus far. He knows that Judai is the InvincibleHero and thus not only avoided dueling him, but was perfectly aware that if he ''did'' duel Judai he would lose, which is precisely why he got the Macguffin another way. (Although, there were times when Saiou's predictions seemed to fortell a good result for Judai, like the time he told Asuka to fight him, and he tried to ScrewDestiny himself. He wasn't nearly as good at it.)
** Actually, it was the Light of Ruin that did all that. Saiou wanted Judai to be able to change destiny, because then Judai could change *his* destiny to be the Light's host. The Light of Ruin is indeed Dangerously Genre Savvy: [[spoiler: Because it also captured and tormented Juudai's destined partner, guardian, and possibly lover Yubel.]]
** Let's not forget that when Judai does indeed trick the Light into dueling him, it quickly falls for one of TheOldestTricksInTheBook, attacking him out of foolish pride when Judai goads it during the one turn its vulnerable (even after it at first was carefully considering ''not'' doing so and simply holding off attacking until next turn when the Light Barrier would probably be reactivated). Some people just ''never'' learn.
* Another villain in ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' who was DangerouslyGenreSavvy (at least at one point) was Amon. He realized that Professor Cobra likely had an advantage when it came to dueling, due to the D-Belts, so he tried to subdue the villain mano-a-mano using martial arts. (Unfortunately for Amon, Cobra, being a former soldier, pretty much had the advantage ''there'' too.)

* Nukus from {{Beetleborgs}} is smart enough to trick Beetleborgs into destroying all monsters he brought back, allowing him to combine them into one, much more powerful, then manipulate them in situation in which said monster destroys their HumongousMecha, and then pull of TheStarscream and succed, becoming TheBigBad of second season. While he's not more sucessful than his predecessor, he still shows his savviness - when Beetleborgs becomes powerful enough to actually fight with him on equal footing, he gets himself a power up, when they win a war over the control of extremely powerful HumongousMecha, he goes to create it's EvilCounterpart for himself. In season finalle he seems to have realized he was so sucessful in previous season partly because of being OutOfContextVillain (being the only monster not brought from Art Fortuns' comics, but drawing of his evil brother Les) which he no longer is (as all baddies in second season have been created by Les), so he starts experimenting with his powers and creates boderline EldritchAbomination to fight Beetleborgs.

** [[TheDragon Redcloak]] is also a very good example. Unlike his [[ContractualGenreBlindness boss]], he actually uses military tactics instead of relying on brute strength; he refuses to rely on classic [[ElementalEmbodiment elementals]] as EliteMooks, he uses stronger and rarer ones; after some CharacterDevelopment, he refrains from using the WeHaveReserves tactic, [[spoiler: uses LaResistance to get his boss' SoulJar, before ambushing them with a group of DemonicSpiders and giving them a TotalPartyKill, and simply orders one of his aforementioned elementals to kill a Paladin trying to goad him into a duel.]] He even points out he's not taking any stupid risk anymore while doing so.

* ''FanFic/QueenOfAllOni'': [[VillainProtagonist Jade]], due to having [[FallenHero once been a hero herself]], knows all the tricks of the trade and is using them to her advantage. For starters, she's avoiding WorldDomination plots and focusing on personal gain, since she knows overreaching is what led to past {{Big Bad}}s being made SealedEvilInACan. When she punished [[TheStarscream Valmont]] for his betrayal and realized she'd done so in such a way that the heroes could capture and interrogate him, she immediately cleared out her lair before he could lead them to her [[spoiler: though she made the mistake of leaving Daolon Wong behind to be captured, (though to be fair, at the time of both those choices she was suffering from, as she put it, "evil food poisoning" after eating the Ninja-khan general)]]. And then there's the BatmanGambit that was [[OperationBlank Operation Steel Lightning]], which ONLY failed because of Agent Wisker's [[SpannerInTheWorks unforeseen interference]]. [[spoiler:And even then, she managed to get info on the tablet locations]].

*** To said villain's credit, she didn't realize that the show's hero was Kim, not Hego.

** Actually, it was the Light of Ruin that did all that. Saiou wanted Judai to be able to change destiny, because then Juudai could change *his* destiny to be the Light's host. The Light of Ruin is indeed Dangerously Genre Savvy: [[spoiler: Because it also captured and tormented Juudai's destined partner, guardian, and possibly lover Yubel.]]

** Actually, it was the Light of Ruin that did all that. Saiou wanted Juudai to be able to change destiny, because then Juudai could change *his* destiny to be the Light's host. The Light of Ruin is indeed Dangerously Genre Savvy: [[spoiler: Because it also captured and tormented Juudai's destined partner, guardian, and possibly lover Yubel.]]

* One ''Webcomic/{{Nodwick}}'' strip involves the title character [[http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/gamespyarchive/index.php?date=2007-10-24 attempting a plea-bargain]] with a Dangerously Genre Savvy EvilOverlord over the fact that she had conquered them "without rumors, signs and portents or escaped prisoners" as forewarning for them to find and stop her beforehand.

** Harry himself definitely fits this trope, to such an extent that WordOfGod says Nicodemus, a 2000 year-old fallen angel, is terrified of Harry.

* In a Royal Rumble match, you're eliminated by being thrown over the top rope and having ''both'' of your feet hit the ground. Thus, there's often a show-off spot where someone is thrown over the top rope, [[TheDeterminator catches hold of it]], and 'skins the cat', pulling themselves back up over the rope and back into the match. Most famously, this was used by ShawnMichaels to win a match when his opponent turned his back and assumed he was knocked out. In a more recent Rumble, Steve Blackman was thrown out by Wrestling/{{Kane}}, snagged the ropes, and got in the classic position to recover...and then [[KillItWithFire Kane]] smacked him over the head with a garbage can, crushing his HopeSpot.

** Both Macho Man Randy Savage and BobBacklund have found themselves thrown ''through'' the ropes onto the ground (therefore not being disqualified), and used this to recuperate and wait out a couple more disqualifications before returning to the ring.

** Rayner also only has one [[AcchillesHeel physical weak point]] which through training he is able to move about his body. Naturally, he eventually moved it to his leg which he then had amputated.

* Lex Luthor in ''SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' had made contact with Braniac, who said was going to give Lex Corp tons of alien knowledge. Superman came an pleaded that this could be a giant trap, at which point Lex revealed he had automated missile sites pointed at Braniac's ship. When Braniac hacked into Lex Luthor's systems, we also learn that the missiles were not connected to Lex Corp computer systems because they fired at Braniac's ship (though Brainiac quickly retaliated and destroyed the launchers).

* Crowley on ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. He correctly deduces Lucifer’s inherent hatred of Demons, while his Demonic compatriots are all blind to this. In season six, he takes the Winchesters very seriously as a threat and takes appropriate steps to foil them (including [[spoiler:faking his own death]]), even [[LampshadeHanging pointing out]] all the {{Big Bad}}s who were killed or defeated by failing to do just that.

* ''Fanfic/{{Q-Basic Gorillas}}'': The Ethermangs realize that the Ice Chimps' fondness for turning humanity into cats can prove fruitless, especially if the Felinus Transmogrin is destroyed the way that the Omni was. So after the Chimps turn someone into a cat, the Ethermangs turn around and start killing every cat in Tel Aviv. This way, the Felinus cannot be used to change the cats back to humans. And if the Gorillas try, they'll destroy the Felinus for nothing.

*** Rey Mysterio promptly returned the favor the following week and sat down next to two others who were wearing {{Edge}} shirts upon his 2010 return to Raw. His first night back on the show, Edge points out that he returned from a serious injury and went on to everything he was supposed to in order to get the fans to like him, yet they just cheered him because he was feuding with ChrisJericho.

* Lex Luthor in ''SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' had made contact with Braniac, who said was going to give Lex Corp tons of alien knowledge. Superman came an pleaded that this could be a giant trap, at which point Lex revealed he had automated missile sites pointed at Braniac's ship. When Braniac hacked into Lex Luthor's systems, we also learn that the missiles were not connected to Lex Corp computer systems because they fired and took down Braniac's ship.