History Main / KnowWhenToFoldEm

[[folder:FanWorks]]

* In ''[[ComicBook/{{Convergence}} Convergence: The Flash #2]]'', the Creator/{{Tangent|Comics}} Superman willingly chooses to surrender to the Earth-One era Barry Allen after he sees through Barry's future and the impact he has on the Multiverse such as the ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths''. He realizes that if he eliminates Barry, he will doom the Multiverse and all of continuity.

* This is a part of what has always made ComicBook/DoctorDoom such a capable antagonist. Unlike most supervillains, Doom can recognise when the plan has gone south and it's time to leave. Yeah, Reed Richards is still alive, and you don't have what you came here for. It doesn't matter. It's time to go. Long before he had his diplomatic immunity, Doom regularly got away by having planned his escape in advance, and leaving the minute he was in danger of being surrounded. In one instance, he fights the ComicBook/FantasticFour tooth and nail trying to get to Mjolnir and claim it, eventually beating them, grasping the handle and, predictably, being unable to budge it. Rather than rage at his failure or try to take it out on anyone nearby, he simply shrugs and goes home.

* {{God}} gives the title character an epic put down in the last issue of the ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'' series, using the tale of Buddha and the Monkey King to illustrate the foolishness of fighting someone that you could never conceivably defeat. Lucifer counters that he lost with pride at least, the validity of which is up to the readers to decide.

* [[ComicBook/MisterFantastic Reed Richards]] once contacted an alien invasion fleet right before they were about to attack Earth. In the middle of introducing himself, the aliens realized who he was (the supergenius leader of the group that has foiled other alien invasions and ComicBook/{{Galactus}} himself) and wisely got the hell away from Earth.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

** In ''Infiltration'', the Earth Based Infiltration team renege against Megaton, with Starscream discovering Ore-13 which can empower them greatly. After Megatron {{curbstomp|Battle}}s Skywarp and Blitzwing, Starscream tests the formula and sends an empowered Thundercracker, Astrotrain, Runabout and Runamuck against Megatron. Megatron calmly tells them to stand down, or he will kill all of them. The four immediately lower their weapons. The threat was not hollow, as even the empowered Starscream can't stand up to Megatron.
** Simply having the presence of mind to recognize when to back down is considered a strength among many Micromasters in ''Transformers Generation One''; Swindler of the Race Car patrol knows when he's beat. Detour of the Sports Car patrol is a bit of a coward, but can tell when the other shoe's about to drop, too.
* ''ComicBook/WhiteSand'': Aggressively defied by Kenton, who's told multiple times that it's high time he gave up, but continues to stride forward to the point of bull-headed stubborness.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: When Diana slams through the wall of the Saturnian throne room, and the Emperor has no hostages to use against her, he has his guards and soldiers stand down and agrees to work out a peaceable treaty with the US, stop abducting people and return all human slaves to earth.

Compare YouWereTryingTooHard, which is about situations where folding somehow causes you to win the pot. See also ScrewThisImOuttaHere; VillainExitStageLeft; OptOut; ISurrenderSuckers; GracefulLoser; IWillFightNoMoreForever; RunOrDie; SwitchOutMove; SensingYouAreOutmatched; TacticalWithdrawal. Contrast SunkCostFallacy, which this trope tries to avoid, and SurrenderBackfire. Compare with DirtyCoward and contrast with RageQuit, which are more emotion-driven while Knowing when to Fold 'Em is strategically based, even though anyone who is willing to commit atrocities because he believes he has the upper hand and stands back because of biting off more than he could chew is a DirtyCoward by default, especially if the evil that they intended to commit was petty. Also contrast with LeeroyJenkins, who is pretty much the antithesis of this trope, and AttackAttackAttack, where the character's {{determinat|or}}ion blinds them to when it is time to give up. Compare ''and'' contrast the DeterminedDefeatist, who is a {{ZigZagg|ingTrope}}ed example, having the attitude of this trope, but who will [[{{Determinator}} press on]] anyway.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'': The setting is "wide-spread magic, low-power magic," meaning that you can buy a level 1 spell in the average village, but you'll have a hard time finding someone capable of casting a level 5 spell in even the largest cities on the continent. The PCs are explicitly stated to be exceptional, meaning they will outclass pretty much everyone else in short order. Two general tactics are recommended for DMs dealing with high-level PCs: Have the enemy organizations send their extremely rare and valuable high-level troubleshooters at the problem... or quietly let the PCs go about their business. [[WordOfGod Keith Baker]] specifically calls out the Trust, the SecretPolice of the nation of Zilargo. Yes, they ''could'' dispose of high-level PCs who are a threat to the security and peace of their nation. But that's expensive, and players are rarely happy with having [[TotalPartyKill their entire party]] dumped into a [[NoSavingThrow sphere of annihilation]]. Another possibility is for the party to simply wake up in the morning with whatever they were looking for sitting on their dresser with an attached note saying "Here's what you wanted. [[GetOut You can leave now.]]"

** In the Grand Magic Games, the free-for-all event on the start of the second day has the participants race across a series of carts, an event that Dragon Slayers, [[WeaksauceWeakness who are susceptible to motion sickness]], don't stand a chance of winning. The event awards points based on how well the participants do, with 10 points for the winner and 0 for the one in last place, so the Dragon Slayers could, at most, hope for sixth place and two points. [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Sting]], who's competing for Saber Tooth(which is in the lead at the moment), decides it isn't worth the humiliation, and drops out after a brief conversation with his rivals Natsu and Gajeel (whose teams are at the back of the pack), whereas Natsu barely passes Gajeel to get sixth place. Sting ends up coming to regret this decision after Natsu defeats him and Rogue, resulting in Natsu's team pulling ''one point'' ahead of Saber Tooth. In the end, [[spoiler:Sting surrenders rather than fight the five members of Fairy Tail's combined team, even though he's uninjured and they're on their last legs, since he's come to realize how determiend they are]].

-->'''Shikamaru:''' "I used up too much chakra, using the Shadow Imitation so many times. I can only hold you for an additional ten seconds. So I've thought about 200 possible moves... but time's up. It's too troublesome to do more."

--->For the love of God, if the man wants to leave, ''let him leave!''

* ''Series/DealOrNoDeal'' is a big example of knowing when it is a good time to stop and take the banker's offer. Far too often there will be contestants that will keep turning down offers and keep playing, even if they knock off every big prize amount on the board. This is a common fallacy (called the SunkCostFallacy) in that people believe if they already gone this far, they might as well keep going to the end and try to get the big prize no matter how much they have lost. Once in a while, you will see players that wise up and cut their losses by taking the money that is offered instead of pushing their luck.
* ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' has several games where contestants can keep risking their luck for a bigger payout or stop and walk with what they won. There have been many times where the audience pleads with the contestant to stop, only for the contestant to keep going and lose everything. Other times there will be contestants that will listen and quit early to keep what they won.
* ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' thrives on this trope. Contestants have to keep playing if they want to win a bigger cash prize, but getting a question wrong will end the game and reduce their winnings to the last threshold they passed, which can be a ''lot'' of money lost if the contestant advanced very far. Many contestants that were in a tight spot knew the risks were too high and simply ended the game early to keep what they won.

** Blackbeard, after [[spoiler:gaining Whitebeard's Devil Fruit abilities]], opted to quit while he was ahead and get the hell out of there. Sure, he may have just gained an ''enormous'' power boost, but considering that he had very nearly been killed by an enraged Whitebeard moments before and was going to have to deal with the likes of Sengoku, the Admirals, the Warlords, and tons of other major-league hitters with something that he had no experience with using if he pressed the attack, he was ''very'' smart to take the safe road.

* Interesting DoubleSubversion in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11899396/20/Ichigo-Awakens Ichigo Awakens]]''. When [[BrilliantButLazy Shunsui Kyoraku]] offers to let Yasutora "Chad" Sado join him for a drink instead of them fighting a clearly one-sided battle, Chad's refusal initially makes it seem like he's going to fight knowing he can't win, [[Anime/{{Bleach}} just like in canon]], only for Chad to clarify that he doesn't want any alcohol because he's underage. When Kyoraku offers some tea, Chad willingly sits down for a drink and talk.

* Phase, of the Literature/WhateleyUniverse, handles power mimic Counterpoint by avoiding fighting him, so the power mimic doesn't get Phase's powers. [[spoiler: It turns out in another book that Phase does have a way of fighting a power mimic, but it's ''lethal''.]]

* ''Fanfic/TheKarmaOfLies'': After Hawkmoth's SecretIdentity is exposed during his FinalBattle with Ladybug, along with [[spoiler:Marinette herself getting unmasked]], Lila realizes that she needs to cut her losses and get out of Paris as soon as possible. This [[{{Foil}} contrasts sharply]] with Adrien, who ignores all warnings he recieves from Plagg about the coming karmic backlash, refusing to believe that he's in any danger from his KarmaHoudiniWarranty running out.

-->Raven: Remember me?
-->Dr. Light: [to the other Titans] I'd like to go to jail now, please.

** Doflamingo also demonstrated this after [[spoiler:Kuzan showed up at Punk Hazard and stopped him from killing Smoker]]. Yeah, he probably could have done okay against him. That wasn't the point, however; he came to Punk Hazard to clean up a mess and eliminate key witnesses to activities that he didn't want the World Government to know about, not fight an [[spoiler:ex-Admiral]], and he already had enough on his plate as is and didn't need anything else that could add to it.
** When [[TheDreaded Kaido]] drops in on Captain Kidd, Killer, Apoo, and Hawkin's pirate alliance, because [[spoiler:Apoo was [[TheMole already under Kaido's fold]] and tricked the others]], Hawkin gave up without a fight because he saw, using his clairvoyance, that there was a zero percent chance they could get away or defeat Kaido. Kidd and Killer [[NeverTellMeTheOdds refused to submit]] and, as predicted, were [[CurbStompBattle thoroughly thrashed]].

* While [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim Drake]] is unquestionably a {{Determinator}} he knows when to pull back from a situation to approach it from another angle, or give up on a case permanently, as he did when a gun runner he was following had the bad luck of being chosen by an EldritchAbomination as its newest anchor for a human form.

* Franchise/SpiderMan is a Determinator of the highest caliber. When he first encounters the Juggernaut in Amazing Spider-Man Issue 229, he launches repeated attacks in futile attempt to slow the villain down. In the follow-up issue, Spidey becomes so desperate he starts using attacks that would cripple or kill even the hardiest of his usual enemies, culminating in him ramming a fully-loaded fuel truck right into Juggernaut and being shocked the guy was still standing. In a later encounter, Juggernaut bluntly tells Spider-Man he's just going into the city to secure an item for his employer, and warns Spidey that if he tries to stop him, then Juggernaut fully intends to do as much damage to the city as he can. Spider-Man agrees to step aside and let him proceed, and when called out on it replies that he isn't anywhere near strong enough to fight someone like Juggernaut, and he isn't willing to risk the lives of innocent people out of pride.

* ''{{Franchise/Transformers}}'':

* ''Fanfic/LearningToBeHuman'': [[spoiler:After the Path to Victory shard tells him that the Entities' goal of an infinite food source and infinite replication is impossible given the known laws of physics, the Entity Abbadon (who'd created an amnesiac avatar that he recently reintegrated himself with), has a HeelRealization and finds a new solution to said goal. Specifically, giving up on it and [[HeelFaceTurn dedicating his life to doing something more sensible.]]]]