History Main / SpannerInTheWorks

* ''InspectorGadget'' is a perfect example, as he often inadvertently helped Penny and Brain solve the cases through his clueless bumbling. This is pretty much his job description, really.

** Suzaku Kururugi is both this and a XanatosSucker. When [[spoiler:Marianne brought him to the Sword of Akasha (possibly thinking he'd side with her out of love for her stepdaughter Euphemia, or because of his friendship with her "vessel" Anya Alstreim)... he sided with ''Lelouch'' instead.]]

* In the manga version of ''ChronoCrusade'' Aion admits [[spoiler:that his plan failed because he didn't take Rosette Christopher into account.]] "No one could predict the actions of such a foolhardy young woman!" Of course, in [[AdaptationDecay the anime adaptation]] the main characters are closer to being {{Xanatos Sucker}}s...

*** [[spoiler:Except then later it turns out he was more of a XanatosSucker...]]

* Kender, gully dwarves and gnomes in the ''{{Dragonlance}}'' series...''especially'' (by their very nature) the kender. While all of the above races have the ability to change events in the past through time travel, due to their origins as races created by the Greygem of Gargath (pure Chaos-in-a-rock), kender have innate fearlessness, insatiable curiosity, guileless but mischievous personalities, and chronic kleptomania ''as racial traitd''. Tasselhoff Burrfoot, for example, is both the XanatosSucker of [[MagnificentBastard Raistlin's]] evil schemes and the only person unpredictable enough to screw them up. One of the most dreaded sounds on Krynn is the sound of a kender saying 'Oops.'

** In ''Wrath of the Lich King'', after Drakuru plays you for a XanatosSucker, you get to do this to his plans repeatedly. Revenge is so sweet...

** Revya and Gig, for all the multiple times they are {{Xanatos Sucker}}s during the storyline, also become epic spanners: [[spoiler:The demon path is basically you laying waste to the entire ThirtyXanatosPileup: Virtious, Thuris, Dio, Rashka and all the other manipulators' year-long plans are ruined by one free-roaming OmnicidalManiac doing it ForTheEvulz.]]

** In the case of [[spoiler:Fontaine]], [[spoiler:Jack, who was previously a XanatosSucker for Fontaine to kill Andrew Ryan,]] becomes the very thing that leads to [[spoiler:Fontaine]]'s downfall.

* The protagonists of ''SilentHill'' tend to be played for {{Xanatos Sucker}}s--but they will also send the bad guys plans spiraling into complete disaster because their goals don't involve unleashing an EldritchAbomination on the world.

Opposite of the XanatosSucker, often ''is'' the XanatosSucker until the final crucial moment. This is the main cause of DidntSeeThatComing, this trope being the "that". Compare with OutGambitted, where someone's XanatosGambit is successful but ineffective against a better-planned-out gambit. Compare TooDumbToFool, where the character is too stupid even to be baffled by explanations. Also compare EvilCannotComprehendGood, where the flaw is that the villain can't see someone being generous or brave or honest enough to foul up his plan.

** Ironically, Lelouch could count as ''his own'' Spanner: on multiple occasions, his attachment to his friends (especially Suzaku or Shirley, but '''especially''' his sister Nunnally) have caused him to make moves that jeopardize his plans or even ''the entire rebellion'' he leads. The first occurrence in R1 is where he [[spoiler: let's Villetta live, because he thought she was no danger to him. When was that? Second episode. The big ones are where he [[spoiler: ignores his own unstable Geass, leading to the death of Euphemia]], and where he abandoned his followers for his kidnapped sister shortly afterward, his trait continued on in R2. This came to the logical conclusion [[spoiler:when his RoaringRampageOfRevenge for the murder of Shirley, carried out against a cult whose members included scientists and children, which ended up being a large part of Prince Schneizel's efforts to turn the Black Knights against him - the centerpiece being the fact that their beloved leader possesses a MindControl eye and quite possibly forced them all into obedience (he didn't).]]

*** Mello was sort of a reverse Spanner, in that his actions did not ''screw up'' Light's plans directly but rather led Near to ''perfect'' his plans.

Wait... how did [[TheFool that idiot]] get in here?! [[OhCrap No]]! Stop! ''Get away from--[[WhatDoesThisButtonDo Don't]] [[DontTouchItYouFool touch]] [[BigRedButton that]]!'' ''[[BigNo NOOOOO!]]''\\

Wait... how did [[TheFool that idiot]] get in here?! [[OhCrap No]]! Stop! ''Get away from [[BigRedButton that]]!'' ''[[BigNo NOOOOO!]]''\\

* In ''Rainbow Six'', [[spoiler: Eddie Price's pipe-smoking after success missions]] is the first in a series of little things that clue TheDragon in to the true nature of Rainbow despite efforts to hide it. One of the villains' captives manages to get off an email, the investigation into which eventually leads the way to them.

Opposite of the XanatosSucker, often ''is'' the XanatosSucker until the final crucial moment. This is the main cause of DidntSeeThatComing, this trope being the "that". Compare with OutGambitted, where someone's XanatosGambit is successful but ineffective against a better-planned-out gambit. Compare TooDumbToFool, where the character is too stupid even to be baffled by explanations. Also compare EvilCannotComprehendGood, where the flaw is that the villain can't see someone being generous or brave or honest enough to foul up his plan. Specialty of TheFool.

* Used and inverted in JRRTolkien's ''{{Lord of the Rings}}''. In order to destroy the One Ring and defeat [[BigBad Sauron]] once and for all, [[TheChessmaster Gandalf]] develops an IndyPloy / BatmanGambit to sneak the ring right under Sauron's [[strike:nose]] eye into Mordor and Mount Doom, the one place it can actually be destroyed. It almost worked except the One Ring itself spans the plan by finally corrupting Frodo. Then Gollum anti-spans the One Ring's spanning by grabbing it and accidentally falling into Mount Doom.

* Deedee from ''[=~Dexter's Laboratory~=]'' is almost always the one to ruin her little brother's scheming.

* Arguably, what Jimmy did to {{Bully}}, Though Jimmy was smart (in terms sociality).

* [[spoiler:Kristoph Gavin]]'s ultimate scheme in ''Apollo Justice: AceAttorney'' was meant to be the murder of [[spoiler:Vera Misham]] via a poisoned postage stamp depicting the magician act Troupe Gramarye. However, the girl is such a huge fan of the Troupe that she saves the stamp for seven years; [[spoiler:her father]] eventually uses the stamp instead and dies. The flaws in [[spoiler:Gavin]]'s plans run deeper than this, but this is his only apparent mistake; everything else is because of [[spoiler:Phoenix Wright]]'s meddling.

* [[WorldOfWarcraft "All right, chums, let's do this!]] [[LeeroyJenkins LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JEEEEENKINS!"]].

* [[HeroicWannabe Ash DragonBlade's]] story in ''Dragon Fable'' from ArtixEntertainment consists of Ash foiling the plots of would be [[BigBad Big Bads]] through his own sheer stupidity.
* In ''LaPucelleTactics'' the plans of both Noir and [[spoiler:the spirit infecting Croix]] are foiled not by the Maiden of Light, but by Priere, a newbie priestess who is perhaps the least likely person you'd expect being a nun, though she has a mean right hook and an even meaner set of legs.
* In ''FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles: Echoes of Time'', [[spoiler:Larkeicus does this to ''his own'' XanatosGambit. He builds a tower to reach the point in the sky where the hero's going to cause the crystals 2000 years ago to vanish, and prepares for every possible outcome, including his own defeat. Too bad he forgot to consider how the hero would get that high up in the first place.]]

* [[spoiler:General Shepherd]] didn't expect one thing in ''ModernWarfare 2''. [[spoiler:SAS Captain John Price. Price firing the nuke at Washington caused Shepherd to resort to some XanatosSpeedChess and move up his timetable for TF141's disposal, but Price's willingness to [[EnemyMine co-operate with Makarov]] pushed him on to the defensive and gave him a [[EyeScream knife through the eye]].]]

* The cornerstone of [[MegaManZX Master Albert]]'s plan to [[AGodAmI become a god]] involved gathering the world's Model Ws and combine them into Ouroboros. However, aside from shitting out Mavericks like an OminousRingOfLand, it has no way to prevent an airship from crashing into it and inserting a war party intent on shutting him down. If he had a few more Model Ws, he could have sprung for mounted anti-air... too bad the Guardians (and Mega Man Model ZX) got to them first (and subsequently destroyed them). The thing to note is that this is a Spanner entry because Albert's plan would have been more complete had they not been destroyed; everything else went [[MemeticMutation just as planned]].

* Sora and Co. from KingdomHearts have an innate ability to utterly ruin the [[ThirtyXanatosPileup numerous complicated plans]] that people form around them without having the slightest clue of what's really going on.
* TeamFortress2 - While [[MagnificentBastard the Spy's]] entire ''job'' is to be the Spanner in the enemy team's works, random chance tends to play this role in otherwise evenly matched teams, as nobody can account for that stray lucky critical hit.

* The protagonists of SilentHill tend to be played for {{Xanatos Sucker}}s--but they will also send the bad guys plans spiraling into complete disaster because their goals don't involve unleashing an EldritchAbomination on the world.
* [[FirstEncounterAssaultRecon Fear 2: Project Origin]] has this happen to the player instead of the villain. Terry Halford comes up with a [[AppliedPhlebotinum telesthetic amplifier]] that could give the player character, Sergeant Beckett, a decent chance at [[BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind exploding Alma's head]], and then [[spoiler:Genevieve Aristide waltzes in, shoots any dissenting voices, and changes the amplifier's settings in an attempt to [[SealedEvilInACan trap Alma]]. Note that Halford, who has a far better grasp of the math and science of the amplifier, has already stated very emphatically that Aristide's plan simply will not work and Aristide is essentially a desperate idiot trying to make reality conform to her wishes. Her pitiful attempts only make Alma stronger, at [[MindRape your expense]].]]
* In VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines, the player character skews the [[ThirtyXanatosPileup very, very delicate power balance of Los Angeles]] simply by being Embraced. [[{{Understatement}} Things sort of snowball from there.]]

* In the ''MassEffect'' series, Commander Shepard is being this to the Reapers, so much so that they [[spoiler: are coming into the galaxy in person in order to kill him/her (...[[BackFromTheDead again]]) after failing through both Saren and the Collectors.]]

When the character ruins the protagonists' plans by unknowingly doing something small but crucial, he becomes a SwissMessenger. When the Spanner can trigger a series of coincidences, it's RobinsonGoldbergContraption. When the plan is screwed and the character is also aware that he will screw the plan, and doesn't care, he becomes a LeeroyJenkins. Occasionally, may be MistakenForBadass.

When the character ruins the protagonists' plans by unknowingly doing something small but crucial, he becomes a SwissMessenger. When the plan is screwed and the character is also aware that he will screw the plan, and doesn't care, he becomes a LeeroyJenkins. Occasionally, may be MistakenForBadass.

* In ''Chrononauts'', new players are the spanner. Plans in the game range from XanatosRoulette to "I win next turn as long as no one makes a minor change in 1914". New players will often meddle with history (even ''starting World War III''), steal random historical artifacts, or kill the makers of said artifacts, to "see what happens".

** The English declared war to them because of that, but it worked, and it worked well. It worked so well that all of the land fight on this side of Germany happened in the north-eastern par of France.