History Main / TrapIsTheOnlyOption

* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': Steve, Tony, and Thor see Thanos calmly [[SlouchOfVillainy sitting in the rubble of their base]], waiting for them. They acknowledge that it’s a trap, but move into to confront him anyway. Perhaps most terrifyingly, the "trap" is merely that he is powerful enough to take on all three of them at once and win.

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

* In ''FanFic/TheApprenticeTheStudentAndTheCharlatan'', Envy successfully abducts all of the townsponies of Neighton and is holding them hostage in the Everfree Vaults, a building with only one way in or out. Nova and Twilight know it's a trap, but they have no choice but to spring it because they know Envy will kill all of the townsponies if they don't.
* ''FanFic/ABriefHistoryOfHistories'' has its own spin on an instance from ''Anime/SailorMoon'', when Jadiete challenges Moon, Mercury and Mars to meet him for a final showdown. In the anime, they answer the challenge because he threatens to burn down the city. Here, however, they have extra motivation: Jadiete discovered Mars' SecretIdentity and will expose it to the rest of the world if they don't come.

* Justified in the Senju Twins Retrieval Arc of ''Fanfic/SonOfTheSannin''. Orochimaru kidnaps Naruto's little brother and sister, knowing that his BigBrotherInstinct would force him to go and rescue them despite it obviously being a trap to capture his tailed beast for Akatsuki (and with all this going on during the Sound Invasion, he'd be severely limited on who he could get for backup before it'd be too late to save them).

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', the party suspects that Gestahl's peace is a trap, but goes along with it anyway presumably precisely ''because'' they don't trust [[spoiler:the Empire. It would have better if they'd just ignored the Espers and kept fighting the Empire. They might have been able to kill the Emperor and Kefka before they'd gotten that far in their plan. Alternatively they could have tried looking into the Espers on their own. Either way working with the Empire, even while assuming they'd be betrayed in the end and preparing for it, ended up being the worst possible course of action.]]

* In "Literature/BrotherAndSister", when the titular siblings run away from the WickedStepmother, she uses her WickedWitch powers to enchant all the water sources of the nearby forest. The siblings realize this but at some point the Brother cannot resist his thirst any longer and drinks from a stream anyway, [[BalefulPolymorph so he's transformed into a stag.]] The Sister manages to hold on and remains a human.

* Happens in the animated ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' series in the season 2 finale, when Sinister brainwashes a captive Professor X to order the X-men to come meet him. Since Xavier is blatantly being mind-controlled in his message and, unknown to Sinister, they've already found out Sinister has him, it's an obvious trap. But since they've been trying to find Xavier all season, they've got no choice but to go and hope they can save him.

'''Megatron:''' ...[[WeHaveReserves always send the boob in first.]]

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', the party suspects that Gestahl's peace is a trap, but goes along with it anyway presumably precisely ''because'' they don't trust [[spoiler:the Empire. It would have better if they'd just ignored the Espers and kept fighting the Empire. They might have been able to kill the Emperor and Kefka before they'd gotten that far in their plan. Alternatively they could have tried looking into the Espers on their own. Either way working with the Empire, even while assuming they'd be betrayed in the end and preparing for it, ended up being the worse possible course of action.]]

* Happens in the animated ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' series in the season 2 finale, when Sinister brainwashes a captive Professor X to order the X-men to come meet him. Since Xavier is blatantly being mind controlled in his message and unknown to Sinister they've already found out Sinister has him it's an obvious trap. But since they've been trying to find Xavier all season they've got no choice but to go and hope they can save him.

*** "Rocks and Shoals": A Vorta field officer deliberately sends his Jem'Hadar soldiers walking into a death trap, so that he can safely surrender once they are out of the way. They know it's a trap, but they go anyway simply because [[HonorBeforeReason obeying the Vorta "is the order of things."]]

* In the final boss fight of ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'', everyone recognizes that approaching the Great Zapfish is a trap, but they don't have a choice but to do it. Sure enough, DJ Octavio sucks the Zapfish into his Octobot King and fights the player.

* In ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'', around Chapter 6 your party starts to suspect [[spoiler:Airy the Fairy]] of being evil, but play along with the plan so they can kill the main villain as opposed to sealing them away.

* In Creator/AgathaChristie's ''Partners In Crime'' stories, Literature/TommyAndTuppence are posing as private detectives, because the detective agency is suspected of dealing with a supercriminal known as No. 16, and Tommy's government boss wants them to flush him out. When Tommy arranges a meeting with someone who is quite obviously an agent of No. 16 who suspects he isn't really Mr Blunt, Tuppence complains that he's walking into a trap with his eyes closed. Tommy replies that, on the contrary, he's walking into a trap with his eyes ''open''.

* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': Steve, Tony, and Thor see Thanos calmly [[SlouchOfVillainy sitting in the rubble of their base]], waiting for them. They acknowledge that its a trap, but move into to confront him anyway. Perhaps most terrifyingly, the "trap" [[spoiler:is merely that he is powerful enough to take on all three of them at once and win]].

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', [[spoiler:the Illusive Man knows that the "derelict" Collector ship is a trap, but sends Shepard and crew to investigate anyway, not wishing to lose the chance to gain intel on the Collectors. He does neglect to tell Shepard it's a trap, so you have no idea until it's is sprung.]]

** Subject to sarcastic LampshadeHanging after a crime boss invites the [[PlayerCharacter Jedi Exile]] to a meeting and insists that she come alone:

* A weird case in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'', where the ending of Chapter 5 is a case of ItWasHisSled. Players who know [[WhamEpisode what will happen at the end]] are still required to trigger it to proceed with the story line. Said trap? [[ManipulativeBastard Arvis]] inviting [[TheHero Sigurd]] to clear his name only to [[TheHeroDies execute]] him with [[KillItWithFire Valflame]] while [[TotalPartyKill ordering your entire army to be wiped]] [[DeathFromAbove with Meteors]].

** In the ''ComicBook/EscapeFromThePhantomZone'' crossover, Supergirl asks helps Batgirl to rescue a Kryptonian telepath who has been sending her distress calls. When Batgirl reminds Supergirl that '''incarcerated psychic''' is an old trick, and points out several holes in Gayle's story (such as her definitely non-Kryptonian name), Supergirl replies that she is aware that it sounds like a trap, but she must walk into it because she cannot risk leaving one of her people in danger.

--->'''Rand:''' [[IdiotBall A trap's not a trap, if you know it's a trap.]]\\

** A very odd version crops up during the "Don't Split the Party" arc. Elan insists that they stay caught in a net trap, stating that even if they easily escape there will be something that captures them ''anyway'' or else the first trap [[BreakingTheFourthWall wouldn't have even been shown]] and it's probably the least painful way of going about it to just be captured by the simple net. Daigo and Durkon ignore him, press on while Elan stays under the net, and are beaten bloody and captured by orcs while Elan stays unharmed under the net. Elan admits he's having to seriously resist an IToldYouSo as they're all being dragged off.

* In the final boss fight of ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'', everyone recognizes that approaching the Great Zapfish is a trap, but they don’t have a choice but to do it. Sure enough, DJ Octavio sucks the Zapfish into his Octobot King and fights the player.

* In an early chapter/episode of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', a student who's madly in love with Akane finds out about Ranma's phobia of cats and decides to lure him into a cat-filled room to humiliate him. He does this by sending Ranma a letter telling him to show up at a particular location if he ever wants to see Akane again...while Akane's standing right next to Ranma and reading the letter too. He then does a hilariously poor impersonation of being the kidnapped Akane (once again, while Akane's ''right next to Ranma'') when Ranma shows up at the designated location. Ranma still goes along with it because he just wants to know what the hell this weirdo is up to. [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Bad choice.]]

* In the ''StarWars'' [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]] novel ''[[Literature/NewJediOrder Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream]]'', pilot Voort [=SaBinring=] notices the enemy attack pattern indicates they're going to spring a trap on their squadron. Squadron leader Jaina Solo decides to weather the trap out; they couldn't run ''every'' time they were targeted by a seeming ObviousTrap. [[spoiler: It nearly proves fatal to her, and her LoveInterest Jagged Fel.]]

* The ''Jar of Souls'' event in ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' has a response line from all of the player characters worthy of the [[StarWars Admiral himself]], but the Witch Doctors suggest that they willingly spring the trap in order to free the souls contained in the jar from their torment.

* The villain Black Mask's pathetic first appearance in ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' is marked by him walking into an obvious trap. He is obsessed with masks, and is killing people that had "wronged" him with them. Then one of the people he wants dead, Bruce Wayne, holds a Masquerade.

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

* In ''Literature/BrotherAndSister'', when the titular siblings run away from the WickedStepmother, she uses her WickedWitch powers to enchant all the water sources of the nearby forest. The siblings realize this but at some point the Brother cannot resist his thirst any longer and drinks from a stream anyway, [[BalefulPolymorph so he's transformed into a stag.]] The Sister manages to hold on and remains a human.

It doesn't always work. Sometimes it turns out there's little discernible difference between having sprung the trap on purpose than in having walked into it accidentally. Heroes have walked into their doom in the invocation of this trope. But it ''can'' pay off. Two types of heroes have been especially known to succeed: The kind that can think like a [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] and use some critical piece of knowledge of the plan to foil the villain's aims while apparently "falling" into their trap, and the kind that is a master of thinking on their feet and [[IndyPloy making things up as they go along]].