History Main / DangerouslyGenreSavvy

* In ''Series/HogansHeroes'', Hogan and his men were often able to get the better of ThoseWackyNazis by gaining their trust, which in turn, gained them access to places enemies weren't normally allowed, enabling them to steal information. In one episode, however, when they did so by painting a general's office, the general showed remarkable savvyness, and ordered Schultz to search them before they left. Hogan had to do some quick thinking and a fast slight of hand to hide the document he stole to avoid getting caught, which required them coming back for it later. Even worse, Schultz (who was clearly [[MinionWithAnFInEvil not very savvy at all]] insisted on treating them at a bar on the way back, delaying them and almost getting them caught a second time; fortunately, the generals [[SurroundedByIdiots underlings were much easier to fool.]]

* {{Lampshaded}} in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48r4IQTB3NE this]] Creator/TheWeatherChannel commercial, when Jim Cantore, notable for showing up where big storms are going to happen, goes to the beach for a vacation, ''everyone'' starts running for the hills, with one shopper filling his cart with bread and making a run for it and a dog barking at him as if saying "please, go away".

----

* In ''TheForceAwakens'', while The New Order shares the Empire's love for giant space lasers, the Starkiller's [[AttackTheWeakPoint weak point]] is extremely well shielded. Also, the Grand Moff Tarkin expy evacuates the station when the situation becomes dangerous, avoiding his predecessor's mistake.

--> '''Tarvek:''' You know, perhaps we should have discussed this.

* ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'': After indulging in typical NothingCanStopUsNow EvilGloating, the [[WickedStepmother Wicked Queen]] suddenly stops mid-EvilLaugh to ponder, "But wait!" ''pause'' "There ''may'' be an [[MagicAntidote antidote]]! Nothing must be overlooked!" Unfortunately that's as far as her savvy goes, because she scoffs at the notion that her Show White could actually be revived by true love's first kiss. She says out loud that the dwarfs will think Snow White is dead, and will bury her alive. (In some written versions her remarks are less family-friendly, reasoning that the fairest girl in the land must have had her first kiss, and more, a long time ago.)

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': President Coriolanus Snow knows that Katniss and Peeta's relationship is a ruse but lets it continue to avoid rebellion, and doesn't kill Katniss because after winning the Hunger Games that would create a martyr. Also, his smell of blood is natural, thanks to [[spoiler:not taking an antidote quickly enough after poisoning both himself and a rival.]] The smell of roses covers it up. .

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': President Coriolanus Snow knows that Katniss and Peeta's relationship is a ruse but lets it continue to avoid rebellion, and doesn't kill Katniss because after winning the Hunger Games that would create a martyr. Also see SomethingAboutARose.

When in the Vault of Endless Night, Ratso and Chow fall into a monster-filled pit. Jade isn't worried, lampshading how the Enforcers have a JokerImmunity by saying that they have a knack for living. She also realizes that she's about to [[TemptingFate tempt fate]] by saying that [[NothingCanStopUsNow she's about to win]] and stops herself (but the guardian is still released after she takes the tablet).
She has also taken measures against having her [[WeaksauceWeakness vulnerability to onions]] being used against her, using her eye-covering bandanna to protect her eyes, and wearing a similar one over her mouth after Viper throws part of an onion down her throat.

** And [[spoiler: he puts a hex on his own name, making it so that his Death Eaters are automatically alerted of the location of anyone who says "Voldemort". He does this because he knows that only the people who are openly against him pronounce his name. Everyone else either calls him "You-know-who" or "the dark lord." Harry, Ron and Hermione were captured and brought to Malfoy Manor because of this hex]].

* In ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'', the "Villain" famously demonstrates this in a scene that was formerly the TropeNamer for YouAreTooLate.

* Villains who are [[TheChessmaster chessmasters]] in Franchise/TheDCU and Franchise/MarvelUniverse can often have a good amount of overlap here, depending on the writer. For example, ''Comicbook/IncredibleHulk'' villain The Leader set a bomb to destroy a town at midnight. The Hulk managed to located said bomb and defeat the mooks guarding it with over two hours to spare - at which point The Leader revealed he also had a remote detonator, and blew the town sky-high.

* In ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'', the Psycho Pirate has MediumAwareness (he was the only one to remember the true events of ''Comicbook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths''). He's refused to sleep, knowing that he could at any moment [[RetGone be taken out of continuity]]. [[spoiler:When the remnants of the Infinite Earths start to be restored by his existence (which he wants to happen), he realizes that it would be a bad idea if the insane Ultraman was restored]].

** When he first showed up Bane had a novel approach to taking out Batman; rather than an overly complex plan full of hostages and deathtraps, just orchestrate a mass jailbreak at [[CardboardPrison Arkham]]. The villains wore Bats down enough for Bane to move in for the kill. At this point he gets {{Genre Blind|ness}}, choosing instead to just break Batman's back, which, since this is a [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks Dark Age]] comic (or, depending on who you ask, a {{Deconstruction}} of one), paves the way for a DarkerAndEdgier replacement Bats. Admittedly, the back-breaking would've been permanent if Robin's father's doctor hadn't been one of the few people in the world who could surgically fix Batman's back, without resorting to the greater superhero community.

** Ra's al-Ghul once decided the easiest way to take down the titular ''Franchise/{{Justice League|of America}}'' was to [[spoiler: simply use Batman's plans to do so.]] They're rendered helpless before Batman even realizes what's happening.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'': Part of the reason why Lex Luthor, despite having no superpowers, is still Superman's worst enemy -- he knows that in all his previous acts of villainy, PlausibleDeniability was the only thing that has always saved him from getting outed publicly as a supervillain, and he knows that since all his power is because he's the CorruptCorporateExecutive head of an enormously powerful MegaCorp, he can't engage in any supervillain cliches that would cause people to realize he's a supervillain. Therefore, he ''never'' risks his image on one attempt to take over the world without a back-up excuse, so when he (inevitably) fails, Superman can't touch him, as no one can prove his guilt in court.
** A classic "imaginary story" has Luthor managing to use the various clichés of the ComicBook/SilverAge. Finding a cure for cancer, Luthor pretends to reform, knowing Superman's desire to see the good in anyone will make him believe it. After keeping up the act a bit, Luthor traps Superman under a high-intensity Kryptonite beam, keeping it going even as he monolouges his big plan. He makes sure this is the real Superman, not one of his android doubles and keeps the beam going long after Superman has stopped twitching to make damn good and sure Superman is dead. While he ends up paying in the end (sent to the Phantom Zone by the angry Kandorians), Luthor still overcame these clichés to win for once.

* [[UltimateXMen Sabretooth in the Ultimate Marvel continuity]] realises that Weapon X and government scientists have simply been overthinking the problem of killing Wolverine, with all their poisons, adamantium bullets and sci-fi weaponry. He decides to simply hold Wolverine's head under water with his superior strength, as Wolverine still needs to breathe even with a healing factor. Even if Wolverine survives the drowning, he'll be severely incapacitated (possibly even permanently) by brain damage from lack of oxygen. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for him, Wolverine shows his own skill at this trope by employing a simple GroinAttack... with his famous claws that can cut anything. Even Sabretooth can't shrug off that kind of pain]].
** The Collector did try this tactic with ComicBook/{{X 23}} and it did not work. Yes, she "died" due to oxygen deprivation, but shortly after returning to an oxygenated atmosphere, her healing factor kicked in and she got back up to continue the fight. She was also shot through the head once with a sniper round and lived. So clearly, brain damage has no lasting effect with this kind of healing factor.
* [[Comicbook/SpiderMan Shocker]], despite being widely viewed as an ineffectual joke, is actually one of the smartest and most successful of Spidey's rogues because he works like a businessman, not a villain. He avoids holding on to grudges because they tend to result in stupid, petty, pointless, and impulsive acts that get people locked up or beaten to a pulp (which would prevent him from working and thus cut into his profit margins), keeps a profile that's high enough to make him an in-demand figure but low enough to keep him off the radar of people who he knows will aggressively pursue (and possibly kill or maim) him, never does anything that he isn't being paid to do because it's wasted effort that, again, tends to put him in harm's way, and never accepts jobs that are too risky because he knows that it's smarter to take a job that pays less but is guaranteed to be a success over a job that pays a shitload but has a very, very slim chance of being a success. In fact, it's likely that the main reason that he isn't a bigger name is because his strictly mercenary approach means that he never does anything huge and attention-grabbing and thus doesn't ''look'' like a big shot... which is just the way he likes it.

* In ''FanFic/UninvitedGuests'', Aizen's latest plan is to [[spoiler: [[HostileShowTakeover steal Ichigo's main character status, thus giving everybody on his side]] PlotArmor.]]

** [[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.]]. 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]].

* ''FanFic/FriendshipIsOptimal'': The [[Main/AIIsACrapshoot artificial intelligence]] Celest-A.I., who is not only aware of how humanity would expect an evil A.I. to act and deliberately avoids this, but also knows how those trying to stop her would react and takes precautions against them, such as moving her servers deep within Earth's crust where they can't be attacked, and convincing the one person who can force her to shut down to [[BrainUploading emigrate]] to her virtual world.

* Elf Commander Ragnar, from ''FanFic/PowerRangersGPX'', first refuses a DuelsDecideEverything and CombatByChampion situation with the Red Ranger. Second, he recognizes the threat the Rangers can be and takes them seriously. Third, he [[spoiler: recognizes the Queen can thwart his plans, so he not only manipulates her, but takes over the military, just in case]]. Fourth, he sets up a barrier surrounding the Rangers' city to prevent reinforcements and finally [[spoiler: [[CripplingTheCompetition cripples an unmorphed Ranger so he can't deactivate that shield]].]] Then there's also taking advantage of the Rangers' unwillingness to kill monsters.

* Syndrome from ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' doesn't automatically assume NoOneCouldSurviveThat when [[spoiler:Mr Incredible falls off the cliff into a waterfall. He throws a grenade after him to make sure. And then sends down some weird scanning drone.]] Doesn't work, but full marks for effort. If he was smarter, he would have then killed his secretary after practically letting her die. [[spoiler:And not worn a cape]], and realized [[spoiler:the problem with his plan to have his hyper-intelligent, self-aware, learning killer robot roll over in defeat for him.]] In short, Syndrome is very Dangerously Genre Savvy, but he's also [[SmugSnake arrogant]] and [[LargeHam overly theatrical]], and sometimes these two traits will overrule his common sense and make him do something purely for the spectacle and/or ego boost. This leads directly to his downfall.

* ''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. If you look closely after the prince plunges that sword into her chest, you'll see her lunging at him with her jaws wide open, implying that she [[TakingYouWithMe was intending to kill him as she died]].

* ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'' gives us [[spoiler: Hans, a villain savvy enough to even ''fake LoveAtFirstSight'', do a romantic duet with the heroine, stand up to the oily Duke of Wessleton to look like the good guy, and come off overall as an entirely reasonable young prince. He only slips up when Anna thinks she can get TrueLovesKiss from him to save her from a curse and he decides to explain how that won't work since he was just using her and leaves her to die.]] TheReveal of all this is as chilling as the movie's title, because this villain made sure ''no one'' saw it coming…except perhaps fans who were expecting the plot twist where [[TheDogWasTheMastermind the true villain is never obvious.]]
* Mother Gothel from ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'' has the foresight to know that she'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar with Rapunzel. Rather than being a cold stepmother figure to her and giving her motive to run away, she instead impersonates Rapunzel's birth mother and uses her love as emotional blackmail to keep Rapunzel in the tower forever. Gothel also gets points for realizing that Rapunzel is missing from the tower after seeing a riderless horse nearby. She ultimately fails the test, however, when she underestimates Flynn's love for Rapunzel and inadvertently allows him to [[spoiler:cut off her hair, killing Gothel in the process.]]

** Pays the emotionally devastated Harvey Dent a visit at the hospital, convinces him that society is to blame for Rachel's death and sets him loose to enact vengance upon the corrupt officials responsible for allowing the kidnapping to happen. This solidifies Harvey's change into Two-Face, irreversibly ruining his reputation as Gotham's white knight.

** [[spoiler:Talia]] ensures there are no loose ends when [[spoiler:detonating the nuclear bomb. She attempts to trigger the bomb before the timer hits, refuses to drive towards the fusion reactor location, and activates the flooding of the reactor to ensure the heroes never succeed in stopping the bomb.]]
** Bane is also this for almost the entire movie, [[spoiler:with only one major slip-up, though he certainly learned from it in the end, deciding to defy her request and kill Batman realizing he's too dangerous to be left alive. Only Catwoman's timely arrival saves him.]]
* Budd from ''Film/KillBill'', as he's the only one who [[spoiler:chooses to outright shoot Beatrix rather than engaging in a bladefight first.]] However this also means that Elle [[spoiler:poisons him with a [[KarmicDeath Black Mamba serpent]] for it.]]

** Benedict uses his new-found knowledge of tropes to his advantage in a climactic scene, by [[spoiler:leaving one chamber in his gun empty to convince Jack Slater that he forgot to reload.]]

** The Decepticons in ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'' learned their lesson from the last film. Instead of falling to Earth as protoforms and causing a worldwide scene, [[spoiler: they travelled to Earth via Sentinel's space bridge, then scanned alternate forms before disappearing into the night.]]

* Stansfield in ''Film/TheProfessional'' expects a hard confrontation with Léon and tells an assault team in full gear to be careful, while he stays out of the shooting. Once the team is beaten as he kind of expected he sends backup in full force, and still is prepared to counter the quiet exit Leòn attemps.

* The Red Skull, in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', shows quite a bit of this before he (literally) picks up the VillainBall (or, [[{{Pun}} shall we say]], the [[CosmicKeystone Villain Cube]]?) at the last moment. He expected his former Nazi superiors to call him on his plans, and eliminates them before they can report. He anticipates Erskine's attempt to replicate the Super Serum, and dispatches an assassin that's mostly successful in thwarting the Super Soldier research, leaving time for HYDRA to grow without Captain America's direct military counterattacks to Skull's resources for months. When Captain America first invades one of his many headquarters, he recognizes the threat instantly and immediately arms all the installation's self-destruct devices. He also realizes the usefulness of Dr. Zola by giving him the keys to his personal car, allowing Zola to escape so as to continue their weapons development--but also having the scientist preserve his CoolCar. This backfires when the heroes use Skull's precious vehicle [[spoiler:to catapult Captain America onto Skull's superbomber to thwart his final plans.]]

* In ''Film/TheAvengers'', when Hawkeye fires an arrow at Loki, [[spoiler: he catches it in mid-air and smirks in Hawkeye's direction, having foiled the assassination attempt. The arrow then explodes, Hawkeye having figured Loki would catch it. You can also see what may have been Loki checking the arrow to see if it was an explosive one. Which is why it's an explosive one that he's never seen before, with a backup timer just in case he caught it.]]
** The World Security Council [[spoiler: had two F-35s with nukes rather than just one, so when the first one goes down by Fury, the second one took off seconds later.]]
* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', [[spoiler: Zola]] exploits and invokes EvilGloating and TalkingIsAFreeAction in order to [[spoiler: stall Steve and Natasha so a missile could kill them.]]

* ''Film/TronLegacy'': Clu proves he had all of his User's intelligence and then some. First, he uses Flynn's frequent absences and the Programs' resentment of the Isos to gather support. Then, he ambushes Flynn and Tron with intent to kill both. Flynn gets away, but making sure Tron was out of the picture not only left Flynn grieving a friend, but took out the guy capable of rallying any opposing Programs against him. [[spoiler: And since it would be a real shame to let a fallen enemy go to ''waste'', he pulls the ReforgedIntoAMinion trope and turns the Grid's champion into TheDragon and executioner!]] Follow it up with coordinated attacks on the Iso cities that the User can't stop, a viral outbreak that can be blamed on the Isos, and making damn sure the portal back to analog flickers out, leaving Flynn unable to get help from the User world. Who says it's not a "Perfect System?" Twenty years of this doesn't dull it a bit. When a {{Mook}} informs him that the heroes must have been killed (remember, no one leaves a body behind in cyberspace), Clu's response is to ''increase'' the patrols.

** Leatherback [[spoiler:has an EMP ability that is able to disable Striker Eureka, the most deadly Jaeger in existence, and leave the Jaeger helpless against attack.]]
** Knifehead [[spoiler:directly attacks the pilots of Gipsy Danger]], as does Otachi, [[spoiler:who goes for Crimson Typhoon's head.]] Otachi also [[spoiler:has a prehensile tail that can counter Crimson Typhoon's third arm.]]
** The portal where the Kaiju are emerging from [[spoiler:has a DNA scanning feature to ensure only Kaiju can pass and so that humans can't just chuck a bomb down it.]]
* Inverted in ''Film/BasicInstinct''. Catherine isn't aware of the structure of the film's plot, she [[BatmanGambit molds the rest of the characters to follow the path she herself lays out for them]] for the novel she's writing during the film. Nick, the cop-on-the-edge with the bad past willingly falls for the FemmeFatale female writer Catherine, Roxy is the possessive girlfriend who is subtly manipulated to go on a rampage out of jealousy, [[spoiler:Beth becomes the fall-guy for the real villainess, etc.]] She strings Nick along mostly through entertaining [[WrongGenreSavvy his hopes that he's part of a different story]] and will successfully charm the mysterious woman with his rugged manliness so they can live happily ever after.

** Viper from ''Film/TheWolverine'', who seems to know about Logan's HealingFactor, along with using Mariko as a DistressedDamsel to force him to come to the facility where she plans to take his mutant powers away. She even deliberately taunts him to make him pull his claws out while he's restrained in a chair.

* Megan, the little girl kidnapped in the AlexCross movie ''Along Came a Spider'' is immediately suspicious when only one person ([[spoiler: the DirtyCop Flanningan]]) has come to 'rescue' her, asking "where's the other guy?", and is not at all moved by the fact that the person trying to persuade her to come out is [[spoiler: [[FemalesAreMoreInnocent female.]]]] She buys herself precious time by being suspicious and running away.

** And as soon as he realizes that Harry ''is'' after the Horcruxes, Voldemort decides to check on his other Horcruxes - going from least protected (the Ring in a box under the floor board of the old Gaunt place) to best protected (he alone knows Hogwarts and, hence, the Horcrux hidden there is perfectly safe) ''and'' brings his snake Nagini, another Horcrux, with him. He won't let her out of a magical cage that serves to protect her from that moment on... Not until [[spoiler: he kills Harry.]]
** And [[spoiler: he puts a hex on his own name, making it so that his Death Eaters are automatically alerted of the location of anyone who says "Voldemort". He does this because he knows that only the people who are openly against him pronounce his name. Everyone else either calls him "You-know-who" and "the dark lord." Harry, Ron and Hermione were captured and brought to Malfoy Manor because of this hex.]]
* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' the Magpyrs from ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum'' have become immune to traditional vampire weaknesses and use this to their advantage. The good guys still win, but they have to struggle a bit for it. When the [[ContractualGenreBlindness traditionally vampiric]] count proves to be far more powerful than the Magpyrs, and has survived because [[spoiler:when he's "defeated", he'll wait until the heroes are gone and forgot about him before resuming his ways. Which is exactly why both the Heroes and villagers like it. It gives them excitement, the heroes work, and nobody really gets hurt.]]

* The Queen in TanyaHuff's humorous short story "A Woman's Work..." is always winning because she's not only read the Evil Overlord's List, she's made it the operating manual for her rule. Not accidentally, the story is found in the anthology ''If I Were an Evil Overlord''.

** Also contains [[spoiler: WrongGenreSavvy, since the main character is misled by his employers to believe he is the Bond character (in order to focus the villain's attention on him), when in fact he is the Bond Girl and his girlfriend is the Bond character. Likewise, by the end the villain thinks he's broken the geas and has everything in his back pocket... despite the fact that he's ''still monologuing'' and not killing anyone when he gets the chance.]]

* Subverted in the DaleBrown novel ''Plan of Attack''. The villain spends a scene explaining to an underling how he believes Patrick [=McLanahan=] will carry out his counterattack and giving instructions on how to stop it, making predictions based on what readers have seen is indeed Pat's modus operandi - only for Pat to go about it differently. Then, knowing that the Air Battle Force has weapons they can use to [[ShootTheBullet intercept missiles]], he orders a MacrossMissileMassacre that includes [[spoiler: nuclear missiles]]. Unfortunately, he fails to [[spoiler: realise that EvenEvilHasStandards]], which leads to his downfall.

* In the ''Literature/DenOfShadows'' series, Jessica has written multiple books about the vampire world. This knowledge helps her to [[spoiler: kill Fala.]]
* In the italian novel ''Cyberspace'', most of the characters' lives are spent in the titular virtual world. One character, an "avatar sculptor", finds out that someone stole the list of his clients and the avatars he made for them. However, he made a backup... on a ''floppy disk'', which he always keeps offline and out of hackers' hands.
* Maldor from ''Literature/TheBeyonders.'' He has [[SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands supreme surveillance]], an army of horrifying abominations at his hands, and nearly limitless magical power... and the thing that's scariest about him is ''just how damn smart he is.'' He has no problem with [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim directly killing]] or [[ColdBloodedTorture eternally torturing]] his strongest opponents, but he prefers to [[AFeteWorseThanDeath reward them for their persistence with an endless feast]] [[RousseauWasRight so that they have a vested interest in keeping him alive.]] [[AffablyEvil He has a calm and rational demeanor.]] He's incredibly persistent, and has plans for just about every eventuality, so taking him by surprise is nearly impossible.

** Spike alternates between this and genre blindness in series 2, killing the anointed one almost straight away to gain power and prevent any overly complex archaic rituals and attack Buffy at Parent-Teacher night when she'd have to uphold TheMasquerade and even going so far as to assemble [[NamesToRunAwayFrom The Judge]], a nigh-invincible demon who can kill people with any ounce of humanity just by being near them. Of course he's also a hot head and DoesNotPlayWellWithOthers

** In the Key to Time story arc, the White Guardian gives the Doctor the task of recovering the six pieces of the Key to Time before the evil Black Guardian's servants succeed in gathering them, so the Doctor goes on a season-long epic travelling from planet to planet finding and collecting pieces. When he reaches the final piece [[spoiler:it's in the hands of the Black Guardian's servant - who skipped straight to the last piece and then spent all his effort laying a trap for the Doctor there, knowing that the Doctor would bring the rest of the pieces with him when he arrived.]]

* Deconstructed in a very harsh fashion with Meeka Claxton on Creator/VH1's ''Basketball Wives''. She looked at a lot of blogs about the show along with blogs that deal with the cast. From that point, she based their personalities on what was written about them. Not only that, after reading those blogs, she thinks that she knows Basketball Wives like an open book. [[SarcasmMode It turns out great]] when Evelyn and Jennifer, the popular side that Meeka was trying to be on, start to get annoyed by her behavior. Tami, on the other hand, keeps telling Meeka that she should get to know the cast for herself instead of basing it on what other people say. Unfortunately, she doesn't, and [[BlatantLies it only gets better from there]]. In Italy, Meeka starts lying about her encounter with Tami and Royce, claiming that [[spoiler: Tami said Evelyn and Jennifer are the "fake side", when Tami actually said "popular".]] She even threw insults about Tami towards Suzie, who is known for [[MotorMouth being a chatterbox]] that doesn't keep secrets. The insults from Meeka came out of Suzie when Tami was trying to agree to disagree with her. But wait, [[FromBadToWorse it got even better]]. After finding out that Meeka is still speaking ill of her, Tami and the rest of the crew go to a club. A huge argument from Tami and Meeka start to blow up and she [[spoiler: punches her in the face]]. Meeka decides to fly back to Miami, leaving Italy, and leaves a letter saying that Tami is classless and that she hopes that Tami isn't causing any problems to the cast. Tami's response? [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome "Dear Meeka, write this letter to someone who gives a fuck."]] She is now considered TheScrappy of the show by most of the cast, and by lots of viewers.

* Iain Harrison from ''Main/TopShot'' realizes from day one that as long as the teams remain evenly matched, the competition will remain relatively fair. He therefor sabotages his own team, breeding discord so subtly that the show's own producers failed to notice. Red Team's total collapse eliminates several serious competitors early on [[spoiler:and paves the way for Iain's total victory in Season 1.]]

* Nukus from ''Series/{{Beetleborgs}}'' is smart enough to trick the Beetleborgs into destroying all the monsters he brought back, allowing him to combine them into one, much more powerful monster, then manipulate them in a situation in which said monster destroys their HumongousMecha, and then pull off TheStarscream and succeed, becoming the second season's BigBad. While he's not more successful than his predecessor, he still shows his savviness; when the 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 an extremely powerful HumongousMecha, he goes to create its EvilCounterpart for himself. In the second season finale, he seems to realize he was so successful in the previous season partly because of him being an OutsideContextVillain (being the only monster not brought from Art Fortuns' comics, but a drawing of his evil brother Les) which he no longer is (as all baddies in the second season have been created by Les), so he starts experimenting with his powers and creates a boderline EldritchAbomination to fight the Beetleborgs.

** Wrestling/SantinoMarella showed that he was...perhaps not ''dangerously'', but rather ''[[Funny/SantinoMarella Hilariously]]'', when after realizing that he had no chance of taking out Triple H or John Cena from an overseas battle royal, he spared himself any further punishment by grabbing himself by the collar [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_Pt5Zo4ycE and eliminating himself.]]

*** Elan then [[spoiler:turns this back on him by [[TakeAThirdOption simply]] [[NoEnding dropping the plotline entirely]].]]

* AkumaTH's version of [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Robotnik]] wised up and built a mech with an armored cockpit, preventing the heroes from attacking the usual [[AttackItsWeakPoint weak point]]. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: he forgot to take precautions against Shadow simply teleporting into the cockpit with Chaos Control.]] [[BigBad The Undertaker]] (No, not [[Wrestling/TheUndertaker that one]]) has this occasionally as well -- when he invents an attack that homes in on and chases down a specific target, he designs it so that it will simply ''pass through him'' if the target tries to return it to sender. Unfortunately, they have their moments of GenreBlindness as well.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Spinnerette}}'', the evil drider Spinnerette (they used to compete over who should be entitled to use the name) reveals that [[spoiler:she figured out easily Heather's identity through [[AwesomeByAnalysis pure deduction.]] Rather than use it against her friends and family, she instead pretended to have reformed and invited Heather into a death trap.]]

----

** [[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.]]. 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]].\\\
After being weakened by her encounter with Lung, Jade decides to put the hunt for the masks on the back burner until she finds the remaining Teachings tablets and uses them to restore herself and gain power, and a better position to bargain with the Generals. But she's still sending her minions after the masks anyway, to keep the heroes distracted in a XanatosGambit; if she gets the mask, that's good, but even if they lose, they keep the heroes busy long enough to find the tablets.\\\
There's also the TailorMadePrison for any heroes they catch, designed so that they ''literally'' can't move. It's commented that Jade's not taking any chances of escape in the design.\\\
When in the Vault of Endless Night, Ratso and Chow fall into a monster-filled pit. Jade isn't worried, lampshading how the Enforcers have a JokerImmunity by saying that they have a knack for living. She also realizes that she's about to [[TemptingFate tempt fate]] by saying that [[NothingCanStopUsNow she's about to win]] and stops herself (but the guardian is still released after she takes the tablet).\\\

** Xykon is also this simply by virtue of ignoring ItOnlyWorksOnce, which dominates the behavior of every other spellcaster in the setting (including the PCs). Not only does he cast the same "boring" spell repeatedly in combat until it works, he uses the same tactic with the same spell in multiple combat sequences. Essentially, while other casters want to show off their amazing arcane powers, Xykon bases his casting patterns on the [[Munchkin actual mechanics of the game system]].

** With [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0931.html #931]], Elan takes a big step towards this. [[spoiler:His plan for dealing with his father involves defying tropes, and assumed the Order would fuck up protecting Girard's Gate and get it destroyed. Which they did, but it was intentional this time.]]

** The Collector did try this tactic with {{X23}} and it did not work. Yes, she "died" due to oxygen deprivation, but shortly after returning to an oxygenated atmosphere, her healing factor kicked in and she got back up to continue the fight. She was also shot through the head once with a sniper round and lived. So clearly, brain damage has no lasting effect with this kind of healing factor.

* In [[FanFic/VengeanceOfTheStar Vengeance Of The Star]], Twilight is forced to watch as her adopted son Spike is killed in front of her by assassins. In retaliation she captures them and during their trial, after stripping them of their wings and horns ''kills their families in front of them'' before stripping them of their magic and banishing them from Equestria. [[spoiler: Twilight had the deaths of the conspirator’s families done publicly because she knew if she executed the guilty parties they would simply become martyrs for more to rise up against her, and by sending doing this it will be hard for more of her conspirators to find more support when many know that it won't just be them but their entire families lives on the line.]]
** [[spoiler: She also reveals that she simply faked the deaths of the conspirator's families during the execution, she brings up the fact that if she'd left them alone the public would[[SinsOfOurFathers constantly harass and persecute them just for being related to the criminals]].]]

* AkumaTH's version of [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Robotnik]] wised up and built a mech with an armored cockpit, preventing the heroes from attacking the usual [[ForMassiveDamage weak point]]. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: he forgot to take precautions against Shadow simply teleporting into the cockpit with Chaos Control.]] [[BigBad The Undertaker]] (No, not [[Wrestling/TheUndertaker that one]]) has this occasionally as well -- when he invents an attack that homes in on and chases down a specific target, he designs it so that it will simply ''pass through him'' if the target tries to return it to sender. Unfortunately, they have their moments of GenreBlindness as well.

* From ''Film/TheThing1982'', the...well, [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm the Thing]] almost feels like it watched other horror movie monsters to avoid making common mistakes. It ''never'' reveals itself without a need or unless it's sure that it's alone with someone else, never draws unneeded attention to itself, attacks in the dark, and works to cast suspicion on others, particularly on people most threatening to it, [[ParanoiaFuel creating even more paranoia than it already does by its very nature alone.]]

* Govermental structures opposing [[OurLichesAreDifferent the]] [[VillainProtagonist protagonist]] in ''Webcomic/BasketsOfGuts'' work operatively and do learn on their mistakes. Also, Kingdoms' population derived some things from the war with [[PredecessorVillain Marasmir]]: all dead are to be cremated, sewers are clean even from dead rats and so forth.