History Main / Outgambitted

*** Which would still turned out to be an Imperial victory if [[spoiler: Rukh didn't kill Thrawn]].

*** Which is to say Thrawn figured out the real target was Bilbringi and planned accordingly. But he ''wasn't'' counting on the [[NeutralNoLonger Smugglers' Alliance]] to join the war and, assuming that the Republic was striking at Tangrene, plan their ''own'' attack on Bilbringi which just happened to coincide with the Republic's offensive and helped turn certain defeat into a crushing victory. A case of a cunning plan being defeated by a cunning-er plan but rescued by a ''botched'' plan.

* The entire, seven book series of HarryPotter. Voldemort makes Plan 1. Snape and Dumbledore make Plan 2. Voldemort goes down in a Crowning CrowningMomentofAwesome.

[[folder:Literature]]

** Jotaro successfully OutGambitted D'arby in their poker game, where a stakes were souls of him, Joseph and Polnareff - the boy that Jotaro choose to give the cards was working for D'arby, and gave Jotaro weak cards, but Jotaro refused to look at them, make D'arby think that he switched them, and add too much to stakes, that possibility of loss would equal D'arby's death, playing brilliant BatmanGambit, thant make D'arby break down.

** Also, like Uranus and Neptune before her, Moon [[FakeDefector pretends to pull off a]] FaceHeelTurn in the first season, greatly risking her own life to try getting into the Negaverse to rescue Mamoru. Kunzite, however, sees right through her and almost gets her killed.

** Also, Moon tries to pull a FakeDefector in the first season, greatly risking her own life to try getting into the Negaverse to rescue Mamoru. Kunzite, however, sees right through her and almost gets her killed.

* The Washimine yakuza clan ended up with this in ''BlackLagoon''. To start, they attempted to make an alliance with [[TheMafyia Hotel Moscow]], with hopes that they'll take care of their enemies. Hotel Moscow sends [[MagnificentBastard Balalaika]] and her BadassArmy to help them. Her brutal tactics against Washimine's other Yakuza rivals quickly spiral out of control and the Washimine head attempts to assassinate Balalaika... Big mistake. The head got his neck snapped and with this Casus Belli in hand, Hotel Moscow allies with the rest of the Yakuza Council against Washimine and begins destroying them piecemeal. Yukio, a high school girl and the lead's relative, takes control over the clan and manages to restore some semblance of fighting strength and strikes back, taking out the local head of Hotel Moscow... Who was one of Balalaika's hated rivals. Since Balalaika's troops are made of former Soviet Airborne Troops who fought at Afghanistan and can "start and win World War III", Balalaika quickly fights with much more cunning and brutality, which almost completly destroy Washimine. Balalaika then [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder uses the guise of her new alliance to murder the heads of the entire rest of the council]], throwing the entire Tokyo underworld into all-out chaos and giving Hotel Moscow carte blanche to move in and seize control. Which had been Balalaika's objective all along, and she outplayed at least three other factions in the process. Once she realized that Balalaika had won the war, Yukio [[spoiler:commits suicide]]. It wasn't better that Washimine clan suffered a civil war between those who supported Yukio and those who supported [[CompleteMonster Chaka]], which finished when [[spoiler: Chaka was brutally slain by Yukio's bodyguard Ginji]].

* WellIntentionedExtremist King Pryderi of the ''PrydainChronicles'' makes an [[DealWithTheDevil alliance]] with resident EvilOverlord Arawn in an attempt to conquer Prydain and put an end to the infighting and bickering between lords that has long plagued his land. After he has conquered Prydain he planned to make Arawn into his servant by virtue of his superior army. Too bad for him, Arawn is well-known and feared for his evil trickery and, too late, the King realizes that the Death Lord has [[XanatosSucker outmanuevered him.]] Unsurprisingly, he doesn't live long after.

* The ThirtyXanatosPileUp of ''ChronoCross'' occurs when two factions compete on manipulating entire civilizations (and one of fiction's greatest {{Xanatos Sucker}}s) to further their schemes across time and space, little realizing that they themselves are being played by a Chessmaster ''nobody'' had accounted for, despite making little effort to hide himself and even having exposition-heavy chats with the protagonist on occasions.

* In ''FullmetalAlchemist'', [[spoiler:Hohenheim manages to completely undo Father's transformation of everyone in Amestris into a philosopher's stone using a transmutation circle ''made from the shadow of the solar eclipse''.]]

* In the case of [[Evangelion]], we have numerous plots going along side-by-side. We have Seele who's trying to manipulate everyone into activating Instrumentality, we have Gendo trying to reunite with his wife, the angels who plan on reuniting with Adam, and later Ritsuko who plots to kill Gendo and stop his plans for selfish reasons. The one who emerges on top? REI AYANAMI, who undermines Gendo after he sees an end to both the Angel's plot (sort of) and Ritsuko's plot. However, it's debatable that Yui Ikari planned everything out from the very beginning in a huge plan, but that's up for debate. It's Eva, after all...

** [[spoiler:Aizen himself gets this when Gin shows he's an even bigger ManipulativeBastard than Aizen himself.]]
*** With the incredibly simple strategy of doing nothing but listening and smiling for a century. Ouch.

** Pretty much every fight in Jojo, considering that its a series where intelligence goes far beyond strength, results in one of the fighters being [[OutGambitted]].

** Almost an unintentional parody. At best, it's a Xanatos Gambit. Maybe a batman gambit. Maybe.

* In ''{{Bleach}}'', [[spoiler: [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Shinji]] explains his reversing ability to [[MagnificentBastard Aizen]], but leaves out the fact that he can reverse each of the three dimensions individually. Just when Aizen has him "figured out" Shinji reverses only front and back, allowing [[KnightTemplarBigBrother Hitsugaya]] to [[ItsPersonal stab Aizen]] from behind, which he never suspects because he's not reversed in the other two directions. Cut to Aizen revealing that he's been using [[MasterOfIllusion Kyoka Suigetsu]] this whole time, and just made Hitsugaya [[IronicHell stab his sister, Hinamori]].]]

* The GameMod ''Blue Planet: War in Heaven'' for [{FreeSpace FreeSpace 2]] has a magnificent example of this. Admiral Calder of the United Earth Federation thinks he's driven a Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance fleet into a trap by tricking Admiral Lopez of the GTVA into making rash actions to protect her ships. However, Lopez's entire fleet was nothing more than bait set out by Admiral Steele, the commander of all GTVA forces in the Sol system. He knew exactly what sort of XanatosGambit Calder would pull on Lopez, and when Calder's battered, exhausted force [[HopeSpot finally began to close the noose]] on Lopez's flagship GTD ''Carthage'', Steele brings his personal flagship, the GTD ''Imperieuse'', out of its RunningSilent mode in the Asteroid Belt--Calder thought he had left Sol system to resupply--and jumps out of [[SubspaceOrHyperspace subspace]] into the fray at the exact right location to start tearing Calder's ships to pieces with his main [[WaveMotionGun beam cannons]] from beyond the Earth ships' effective range. The "Tevs" lose a few small ships and a number of fighters, while the most elite task force in the entire United Earth Federation is almost completely destroyed save ''one ship'' in a matter of minutes. Also doubles as a PlayerPunch as the player is stationed on that one ship that makes it out alive [[spoiler:only to emerge from subspace too close to the sun and doom the crew to an agonizing death...[[CliffHanger or so it seems]].]]

* ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'''s third season revolves a great deal around the conflict between super villains Lex Luthor and Grodd. In their final confrontation, Luthor manipulates Grodd into using his own powers to destroy himself, resulting in this exchange:
--> '''Luthor:''' Goodbye, Grodd. It could have gone the other way.\\
'''Grodd:''': It really could have, couldn't it?\\
'''Luthor:''' No. But why speak ill of the dead?