History TakeAThirdOption / Literature

* In the novel by Robert brown The Paradise Prophecy,the deuteragonist Sebastian takes a third option when an apopalyptic prophecy is about to be fulfilled. He can either [[spoiler: kill Jenna himself]] or he can [[spoiler: let Jenna kill herself, as she is about to do because Belial is both encouraging her and holding her hostage]]. Instead he [[spoiler: Decapitates Belial, which turns out to have been the right choice, as it was a test to see whether humans had any humanity left in them.]]

* A particularly unconventional version of this trope in ''The Son Of Neptune'', a Literature/{{Percy Jackson|and the Olympians}} book, after the 5th Cohort captures the flag in the battle. [[spoiler: Gwen]] is stabbed in the chest from the back, and consequently dies. Moments later, though, [[spoiler: Gwen]] returns to life, and is immediately questioned as to how it happenned. She says she was at the River Styx, and that a man (Thanatos, or Death, presumably) asked her for a Drachma (Roman money) for transport to the Underworld. We also learn earlier in the series that if you don't have a Drachma, you are forced to wait for eternity (Or at least until someone pays for you too), so [[spoiler: Gwen]] could have gone on or waited for an eternity, but turned around and left, because the Door of Death was still open.

* Literature/HarryPotter

** A rare example of a hero being ''offered'' a third option occurs in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' when Harry encounters the [[RiddlingSphinx sphinx]] in the maze. She tells him that he is allowed to simply turn around and walk away if he is unable to solve the riddle she poses. (This is a subversion, however, because he doesn't take that option: he able to answer it correctly.)

* In Creator/PiersAnthony's ''[[Literature/ApprenticeAdept The Blue Adept]],'' protagonist Stile had to face the local unicorn Herd Stallion in TrialByCombat so his friend, Neysa the unicorn, is allowed to accompany him on his quest. The duel will take place within a unicorn circle, which will [[AntiMagic nullify Stile's magical power]], leaving him no match for the massive Stallion. But he'd recently acquired use of [[UpgradeArtifact the Platinum Flute]], which would allow him to retain his magic. Stile is left with two options: Play things straight and let the Stallion humiliate him or use the Flute and humiliate the Stallion, possibly making a powerful enemy in the process and definitely making life harder for Neysa, once the quest is over. After some advice from an [[OurVampiresAreDifferent elder vampire]] (who was repaying a favor from Stile's friend Hulk), Stile comes up with a plan: As Stile entered the unicorn circle, he put on a display of magic that showed he was at full strength even within the Circle, giving the Stallion the choice to bow out gracefully. When the Stallion [[HonorBeforeReason refused to back down]], Stile used the Flute to give himself the same physical power as the Stallion, making things a truly fair fight. The Stallion won in the end, but was so impressed with Stile setting aside a sure win for a fair match that he allowed Neysa to accompany him, anyway.

* HarryPotter

* In a classie science fiction short story, a geneticist working on a procesure for selecting the sex of one's children is suddenly confronted by two descendants from mutually-exclusive futures, depending on who he marries. In one timeline, his wife encourages him to finish his work, there's an overabundance of boys, and Earth becomes dangerously militarized. In the other timeline, his other wife tells him to forget about his work, an unrelated condition causes an overabundance of girls, and Earth grows complacent and passive. As the alternates squabble and try to bribe or threaten him, he calls in his secretary and proposes to her instead, preventing both timelines.

** The climax of the book is also a kind of Take a Third Option. [[spoiler:Ender is facing his last and most difficult challenge at Command School, with only eighty outdated fighters up against a force of thousands and thousands based around a planet. He realizes that the teachers either want him to win fairly, in which case they'll just throw more and more challenges at him when he commands the ''real'' fleet, or lose, in which case he'll be sent home, and someone else will have to command the fleet and probably lose for real. So instead, he decides to win ''un''fairly, by using the [[WaveMotionGun Dr. Device]] against the ''planet'', vaporizing the entire enemy fleet and most of his own fighters. Thus, he expects to win but be flunked out anyway for his insane solution. Except for the twist ending...]]
*** The twist ending is that [[spoiler:the "simulation" wasn't a simulation at all. Ender was actually controlling fighters the entire book when he thought he was just practicing for the battle. Which means he actually did just destroy a populated planet… Ironically, this is explained as exactly what his superiors wanted really, the brilliance of Ender's tactical mind without the ethical or moral hesitations an adult general might have.]]

* ''Literature/HaloTheFallOfReach'' uses this exact phrase while then-Commander Keyes is formulating tactics to win an impossible battle ("Yes... he ''did'' have a third option"). He then proceeds to have a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome involving ''ramming'' a Covenant destroyer to knock out its shields, whilst maneuvering so it hits itself with ''its own plasma torpedoes.''
** Specifically, Keyes had his ship SLINGSHOT around a planett, remote-activated a Shiva Nuke he'd dumped near the destroyer so its shields would be knocked out, and THEN trailed the plasma torpedoes into the enemy ship. The ramming was actually a calculated, risky move that nearly tore Keyes' own ship in HALF. As said by the Schoolmaster himself, "half a degree off course, and the Iroquois would have been torn apart". In the end, every single bottom deck on his ship was breached, and two meters of solid titanium 'A' armor plating had been abraded right through. SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome indeed.

* In children's book The Pinkish Purplish Bluish Egg, the griffon that hatches from the egg of the title finds himself and his more conventional bird neighbors menaced by a pack of foxes and wolves. He observes that his size, beak, and claws would probably allow him to simply kill the pack, but his adoptive turtledove mother insists that "violence is wrong" and that he should ignore the pack and hope they leave him alone. Instead, he decides to grab them by their tails and forcibly relocate them to an island off the coast, supposedly without hurting them.

* Discussed in [[TheKaneChronicles The Red Pyramid]] (in a moment of [[GenreSavvy Genre Savviness]]) when Sadie is asked if she was prepared to lose her father if it meant saving the world.

* In Creator/PiersAnthony's ''[[Literature/ApprenticeAdept The Blue Adept]],'' protagonist Stile had to face the local unicorn Herd Stallion in TrialByCombat so his friend, Neysa the unicorn, is allowed to accompany him on his quest. The duel will take place within a unicorn circle, which will [[AntiMagic nullify Stile's magical power]], leaving him no match for the massive Stallion. But he'd recently acquired use of [[UpgradeArtifact the Platinum Flute]], which would allow him to retain his magic. Stile is left with two options: Play things straight and let the Stallion humiliate him or use the Flute and humiliate the Stallion, possibly making a powerful enemy in the process and definitely making life harder for Neysa, once the quest is over. After some advice from an [[OurVampriesAreDifferent elder vampire]] (who was repaying a favor from Stile's friend Hulk), Stile comes up with a plan: At the start of the match, Stile puts on a display of magic that showed he was at full strength even within the Circle, allowing the Stallion to bow out gracefully. When the Stallion [[HonorBeforeReason refused to back down]], Stile used the Flute to give himself the same physical power as the Stallion, making things a truly fair fight. The Stallion won in the end, but was so impressed with Stile setting aside a sure win for a fair match that he allowed Neysa to accompany him, anyway.

** too few Canim to fight the Vord, too many to ship back to Alera? Build boats out of icebergs.

* In the McAuslan story ''Captain Errol'', Lieutenant [=MacNeill=] and his platoon of Highlanders are sent to prevent Arab rioters from crossing a bridge. [=MacNeill=] doesn't want to fire on the mob -- even injuring the leader will lead to bad PR -- but the rioters aren't stopping and [=MacNeill=] is AFatherToHisMen. Luckily, another officer appears at this point. His third option is to [[spoiler: make it appear as if he is about to blow up the bridge, by carrying an empty ammo box and roll of wire to the center. The mob dissipates at once, without bloodshed.]]

* Oddly enough, this is ''ignored'' in the ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' series. The book ''TheMammothHunters'' creates a love triangle between Ayla, Jondolar and Ranec, and even though everyone mentions Ayla could simply mate both men, all three characters and the narrative as a whole treats it as an either/or choice. This could be dismissed as jealousy if it weren't for the fact that ''no other character in the entire series enters a polyamorous relationship''; at the end of the book Ayla tells Ranec to mate another woman who loves him instead of her who had initially been resentful of the possibility of Ayla stealing Ranec from her, and Jondolar's mother, despite mating several times, divorced all her previous mates before mating new ones. And yet the series treats mating with multiple partners as normal and commonplace and the expected end to love triangles, making this almost a case of entire cultures having an InformedAttribute.

* In Brandon Sanderson's ''{{Mistborn}}'' series, at the end of the second volume the Hero faces a FriendOrIdolDecision. [[spoiler:She takes the "right" option, the one that wasn't used by the villain (and is the reason he became the villain). It is then revealed that her choice actually [[NiceJobBreakingItHero releases]] an [[SealedEvilInACan evil god]] and the third book is all about taking a third option.]]

* Literature/AnitaBlake is notorious for doing this.

* A minor example occurs early in ''EndersGame''. In a video game that invents itself as the player moves forward, Ender eventually runs up against a situation called the Giant's Drink: a giant offers Ender's character a choice between two odd-looking drinks. They're both poisoned; no matter which one Ender chooses, he always dies, albeit in a different way each time. Finally, frustrated by the game, Ender climbs up the giant's shirt and kills him by digging into his skull through his eye. It's not the most meaningful decision ever made--certainly not the most meaningful decision ''Ender'' makes--but the only reason Ender can continue in the game is because he thinks outside the box. [[spoiler:Also, the game is a psych test in disguise, and getting fed up with the Giant and giving up on the certain-death test rather than continuing to drink is an allegory for overcoming suicidal tendencies, so Ender is unknowingly passing a major test on the way to the end (the Drink puzzle only comes up for people who've proven their suicidal tendencies through previous choices, and no one has ever "beaten" before, leading the developers to freak when the game has to write entire new areas to accommodate how awesome Ender just proved himself to be).]]

* AnitaBlake is notorious for doing this.
* Towards the end of ''[[{{Conqueror}} Lords of the Bow]]'', the Mongols are apparently faced with a choice of turning back or trying to break through the Great Wall of China and being slaughtered in the process by the Chin army waiting on the other side. Genghis Khan notices that the wall is contiguous with the mountains, and simply sends a portion of his army over the mountains to attack the Chin from behind.

* One of the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' novels uses this exact phrase while Captain Keyes is formulating tactics to win an impossible battle ("Yes... he ''did'' have a third option").
** He then proceeds to have a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome involving ''ramming'' a Covenant destroyer to knock out its shields, whilst manouvering so it hits itself with ''its own plasma torpedoes.''
** It has to be said the Keyes third option is more awesome than stated above, as he had his ship SLINGSHOT around a planet at one point, remote-activated a Shiva Nuke he'd dumped near the destroyer so its shields would be knocked out, and THEN trailed the plasma torpedoes into the enemy ship. The ramming was actually a calculated, risky move, that nearly tore Keyes' own ship in HALF. As said by the Schoolmaster himself 'half a degree off course, and the Iriquois would have been torn apart'. In the end, every single bottom deck on Keyes ship was breached, and two meters of solid titanium 'A' armor plating had been abraded right through. SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome indeed.
*** Used in the games as well. [[ZombieApocalypse The Flood have been released]], and the apparent options are to either let them spread and consume everything in the galaxy, or activate the Halo, wiping out the Flood... along with any living thing large enough to support Flood infection. [[MissionControl Cortana]] comes up with another plan; Chief destroys the Halo, eradicating the Flood and preventing galactic destruction.

* In JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/ChroniclesOfChaos Fugitives of Chaos]]'', the question of whether to fight Echinda -- risking their lives and thereby the universe -- or run from her -- abandoning people to their deaths -- is tabled when Amelia interprets some information and realizes that she can appease her.

* Done in a twisted form by HAL in ''TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'': [[spoiler:Faced with the dilemma of [[LogicBomb two contradicting directives]], one giving general instructions to provide information to the crew, and one giving specific instructions not to inform the crew about a certain aspect of the mission, HAL finds a way to solve the issue. The problem is, that solution is to KillThemAll.]]
* At the end of ''MemorySorrowAndThorn'', the heroes find out that they have been the {{Unwitting Pawn}}s in the villain's [[spoiler:MacguffinDeliveryService]] plot, and that nearly everything they've done has in some way contributed to the BigBad's victory. Faced with an enemy too powerful to fight, too vengeful to talk down, and with their own hatred feeding him strength, TheHero Simon discovers that the third option is [[spoiler:ThePowerOfLove -- more specifically, {{Forgiveness}}]].

* Played with in LordOfTheRings: Saruman reveals to Gandalf that he has made a FaceHeelTurn and is going to make a play to claim the One Ring for himself. He gives Gandalf two choices: either he's with him or he's with Sauron. Gandalf glibly replies that he doesn't like either choice and asks for a third. In response, Saruman locks him up in Orthanc, in an attempt to completely remove him from the game. Gandalf comes up with his own ''fourth'' option, by escaping and rallying the Free Peoples against him.

* Done in a somewhat twisted form by HAL in ''TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'': [[spoiler:Faced with the dilemma of [[LogicBomb two contradicting directives]], one giving general instructions to provide information to the crew, and one giving specific instructions not to inform the crew about a certain aspect of the mission, HAL finds a way to solve the issue. The problem is, that solution is to KillThemAll.]]

* Toward the end of ''[[SwordOfTruth Wizard's First Rule]]'', [[spoiler:the BigBad Darken Rahl gives Richard a choice: Either help him open the MacGuffin, allowing him to rule the world and take Kahlan as his queen, or do nothing, in which case Rahl will open one of the boxes and either rule the world anyway or destroy it. In the end, Richard feigns helping him (Rahl believed he was under a spell that would make him tell the truth), and tricks him into killing himself.]]

* The entire premise of the novel ''The Gripping Hand'', which is the sequel to a book (''TheMoteInGodsEye'') in which the human species makes contact with a species that has three hands--two dexterous hands and one strong "gripping" hand, the source of the title. This is exemplified in that the phrase "on the one hand...on the other hand..." is often followed by "on the gripping hand" even though humans can't naturally think that way (having only two hands and all).

* In PiersAnthony's ''[[Literature/ApprenticeAdept The Blue Adept]],'' protagonist Stile had to face the local unicorn Herd Stallion in TrialByCombat so his friend, Neysa the unicorn, is allowed to accompany him on his quest. The duel will take place within a unicorn circle, which will [[AntiMagic nullify Stile's magical power]], leaving him no match for the massive Stallion. But he'd recently acquired use of [[UpgradeArtifact the Platinum Flute]], which would allow him to retain his magic. Stile is left with two options: Play things straight and let the Stallion humiliate him or use the Flute and humiliate the Stallion, possibly making a powerful enemy in the process and definitely making life harder for Neysa, once the quest is over. After some advice from an [[OurVampriesAreDifferent elder vampire]] (who was repaying a favor from Stile's friend Hulk), Stile comes up with a plan: At the start of the match, Stile puts on a display of magic that showed he was at full strength even within the Circle, allowing the Stallion to bow out gracefully. When the Stallion [[HonorBeforeReason refused to back down]], Stile used the Flute to give himself the same physical power as the Stallion, making things a truly fair fight. The Stallion won in the end, but was so impressed with Stile setting aside a sure win for a fair match that he allowed Neysa to accompany him, anyway.

* A particularly unconventional version of this trope in The Son Of Neptune, a PercyJackson book, after the 5th Cohort captures the flag in the battle. [[spoiler: Gwen]] is stabbed in the chest from the back, and consequently dies. Moments later, though, [[spoiler: Gwen]] returns to life, and is immediately questioned as to how it happenned. She says she was at the River Styx, and that a man (Thanatos, or Death, presumably) asked her for a Drachma (Roman money) for transport to the Underworld. We also learn earlier in the series that if you don't have a Drachma, you are forced to wait for eternity (Or at least until someone pays for you too), so [[spoiler: Gwen]] could have gone on or waited for an eternity, but turned around and left, because the Door of Death was still open.

* Used subtly in ''[[Literature/TheHouseOfNight Lenobia's Vow]]''. A bishop and an abbess are discussing the vampyres' presence in New Orleans, which the bishop considers [[FantasticRacism "blasphemy"]]. The abbess is faced with a dilemma: does she disagree with the bishop (thus starting a tedious argument) or agree with him and lie about her beliefs? Her response is to shrug and reply, "Some say so, some say so."

* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', Katniss and Peeta are told by the Gamemakers that only one of them can be the victor, despite an earlier statement saying that if they are the last two alive, two tributes from the same district can survive. (Basically, they have a ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem point of view.) Rather than either of them killing the other, Katniss and Peeta bluff the Gamemakers by preparing to commit double suicide, expecting them to prefer two winners over no winner. It works, but the Capitol is furious that Katniss was able to find a third option.

* In PiersAnthony's ''[[Literature/ApprenticeAdept The Blue Adept]],'' protagonist Stile had to face the local unicorn Herd Stallion in TrialByCombat so his friend, Neysa the unicorn, is allowed to accompany him on his quest. The duel will take place within a unicorn circle, which will [[AntiMagic nullify Stile's magical power]], leaving him no match for the massive Stallion. But he'd recently acquired use of [[UpgradeArtifact the Platinum Flute]], which would allow him to retain his magic. Stile is left with two ) options: Play things straight and let the Stallion humiliate him or use the Flute and humiliate the Stallion, possibly making a powerful enemy in the process and definitely making life harder for Neysa, once the quest is over. After some advice from an [[OurVampriesAreDifferent elder vampire]] (who was repaying a favor from Stile's friend Hulk), Stile comes up with a plan: At the start of the match, Stile puts on a display of magic that showed he was at full strength even within the Circle, allowing the Stallion to bow out gracefully. When the Stallion [[HonorBeforeReason refused to back down]], Stile used the Flute to give himself the same physical power as the Stallion, making things a truly fair fight. The Stallion won in the end, but was so impressed with Stile setting aside a sure win for a fair match that he allowed Neysa to accompany him, anyway.