History XanatosGambit / YoungJustice2010

* Both Vandal and Darkseid were playing the long game this season, as both of them had interests in what Lor-Zod was doing. As in the process of [[spoiler:releasing the House of General Dru-Zod]], they both had high hopes of them causing devastation on the Justice League. But regardless of what happened next, Vandal and Darkseid both had an idea of what they wanted from all this. For Vandal, [[spoiler:capturing the House of Zod as well as the rest of the Phantom Zone Kryptonias for a new army, alongside the metahuman forces in Markovia, for the future battle for the galaxy]]. For Darkseid, [[spoiler:he gained the one prisoner he wanted more than any to use amongst his Furies: Kara Zor-El]]. In addition, although Darkseid's Martian ally Ma'alefa'ak was [[spoiler:cast into the Phantom Zone with the House of Zod]], he is returned to Darkseid no worse for wear, [[spoiler:rewarded with the planet Durla, potentially giving Darkseid a future Martian army in the process]].

!!Seasonlong
* Both Vandal and Darkseid were playing the long game this season, as both of them had interests in what Lor-Zod was doing. As in the process of [[spoiler: releasing the phantom zone criminals]], they both had high hopes of them causing devastation on the league. But regardless of what happened next, Vandal and 'Seid both had an idea of what they REALLY wanted from all this. For Vandal, [[spoiler: capturing many of the kryptonian prisoners for a new army in the future]]. For Darkseid, [[spoiler: gaining the one prisoner he wanted more than any to use amongst his Furies: Kara Zor-El.]]

!!S1 E24 Usual Suspects

!!S1 E25 Auld Acquaintance

* Like many modern militaries and companies, the Light invokes XanatosGambit as standard operating procedure. If the main objective can’t be accomplished, the secondary one can be. Due to their own agendas, however, sometimes the main objective WILL be the second one, [[WeHaveReserves it’s just that their minions don’t know that.]]

* Dubbilex starts a fire to lure the Justice League to the Cadmus facility. Regardless of whether the Team successfully escaped, it guaranteed that sooner or later the Justice League would discover Cadmus and liberate the G-Gnomes. Guiding them to Superboy and them successfully escaping was just the best case scenario.

* On a smaller scale, Bane pulled one by stampeding the Team towards the forces of Kobra who conquered his island of Santa Prisca. Either they destroy Kobra (and Bane wins) or Kobra kills them and the Justice League destroys Kobra to avenge them (and Bane wins).

* The seeming mission of Dr. Ivo is to destroy the Justice League with Amazo, but the real objective is to obtain as many of their powers as possible and then re-obtain the robot whether or not they defeat it. The Justice League ultimately did destroy it, but the Team have to face off against Ivo's M.O.N.Q.Is, the one sent in to reclaim the parts, and ultimately face trouble when they succeed in reassembling Amazo.

* Manta's job is to steal enough of the Starro organism to be used as a weapon, so it doesn't matter if he gets the whole body or just a sample. He is forced to destroy it when confronted by Aqualad and Tempest, so only a single arm is brought up to be used later.

* Psimon removing the team's memories guarantees that they'll be vulnerable and disunited. Regardless of whether they escape or not, this at least buys the army time to figure out who they are and what they're doing. This is done successfully, even if they do later manage to defeat him and get away.
** The team went to Bialya, disrupted their scientists' experiments as well as the telepath Psimon, and went home with a metallic sphere that is some kind of advanced technology. It's not a big loss for The Light. They'll get more technology down the road. The main goal was to test their new partner's transportation system: a Boom-Tube.

* Lex Luthor and Ra's arrange for an attempted assassination of the former. Regardless of whether superheroes showed up or not, Mercy would've protected Lex with Lexcorp weapons and created the demand for them in the two Rhelasias. The Team, mainly Red Arrow and Aqualad, interfering is an unexpected bonus, as it lets them covertly [[spoiler: get intel from Red Arrow]] while they're there.

* There is a gambit that is put into action since the pilot episode and culminates in episode 11. The ice-based villains, these being Mister Freeze, Icicle Jr., Killer Frost, and Captain Cold, were quickly defeated in episode 1. [[spoiler: This is part of their plan as each of them manage to get sent to Belle Reve, before carrying out their plan: Break every supervillain out of there.]]
** What's impressive is that this itself was part of another Xanatos Gambit. The team stops the supervillains (except for Riddler) from breaking out. However, this attempted escape causes Amanda Waller, the warden, to lose her job to Hugo Strange, who is an agent of The Light. Now they have control over what is practically an army of supervillains. It ends up only being a temporary victory over time as [[spoiler:Hugo Strange is deposed offscreen and Amanda Waller reclaims Belle Reve in order to set up the ComicBook/SuicideSquad there]].

* Klarion mainly wants to cause chaos, so splitting the adults and children both causes this, and gives his allies in the Light time to pull off operations (Sportsmaster and Riddler stealing the arm of Starro). Even if the spell is cut quickly, both of these are accomplished (it also has the side effect of forcing Zatara to [[FateWorseThanDeath become Doctor Fate]]).

* The plan only fails because Kid pulls a Xanatos of his own: fake the queen's death and then covertly put her in the room with Vertigo. Regardless of what he says, Vertigo will now openly reveal his criminality, which means she can revoke his immunity.

* The Light pull one with the ambush from Riddler, Mammoth, Shimmer, and Cheshire. Regardless of whether anyone on the Team is hurt (unlikely, since they're trying to throw the fight, but not impossible in the chaos of battle), the Team is gonna end up with the Starro tech and take it to the League ([[spoiler:allowing Red Arrow to implant it all into the Justice League under Vandal's orders]]).

* And unsurprisingly, Vandal Savage pulls one. Regardless of whether they control the League long-term, the good guys will run into trouble when they go galactic because of [[ChekhovsGun the missing sixteen hours]], later revealed to be [[spoiler:an intergalactic rampage that gets Earth noticed by alien forces such as the Reach, Despero, and Mongul, and forces those same Leaguers to go offworld to stand trial]].

* Black Manta pulls one, to test his son Kaldur's honesty if he failed. Kaldur is sent to destroy a Martian communication satellite set to launch. While Kaldur & his team are unable to stop the launch of the satellite, the rocket containing it gets destroyed anyway, due to a bomb that The Light had placed on days prior to the launch.

* The Team BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame in "Summit". [[spoiler:They'd taken so many steps that no matter ''what'' the Light and Reach did, they were screwed. Summit continues? They're recording everything for an EngineeredPublicConfession to wreck the Reach's VillainWithGoodPublicity act. Artemis and Kaldur's FakeDefector act is uncovered? Miss Martian already replaced Deathstroke and fakes their deaths, Kaldur triggering what seems to be a DeadMansSwitch that reveals the Light was playing the Reach and shatters their alliance. Vandal Savage calls in an army of Mooks to kill them? The rest of the Team has already disguised themselves as mooks and turns the tables. The end result is the Ambassador, Black Manta, and the Brain and Monsieur Mallah are captured, their alliance obliterated, the Reach exposed as the invaders they really are, and Vandal Savage having a VillainousBreakdown.]]
** [[spoiler:But even here the Light manage to pull a Xanatos Gambit. ComicBook/LexLuthor and Queen Bee are entirely absent from the scene (likely due to their VillainWithGoodPublicity acts), Vandal Savage has to unleash Klarion (by having the witch boy magically turn the sword Miss Martian telekinetically pointed at Vandal into a [[WeaksauceWeakness fire]] snake to make her let him go), who then teleports him out, and Ra's al Ghul will inevitably be resurrected with a Lazurus Pit (though in the long run he gives up his seat in the Light as well). Then The Light steals the War World from under the Justice League's nose, threatens the rest of the universe should they invade Earth, and then reveals that they are in league with freakin ''Darkseid''. It ends with Vandal Savage commenting, "Business as usual." Even when the heroes win they lose!]]

* The Light hires Lobo to kill Forager, leading to the Czarnian mercenary assaulting Nightwing's splinter team. After a long battle, Forager pulls one of these plans by molting his exoskeleton to fake his death and trick Lobo into thinking he'd won. But the Light did have a good reason to send in Lobo, it was to trick Nightwing's team into revealing themselves, and who exactly was part of it, to the shadowy organization.

!!S3 E26
* The third season finale sees the Team and Outsiders return to Markovia when Baron Bedlam escapes prison and performs a coup d'etat. [[spoiler:When they get in, Terra, performing her usual [[TheMole mole]] role, is ordered to assassinate the Outsiders' leader Beast Boy at a critical moment with the hopes that the Light can use it to set up [[SuperRegistrationAct registration rules]] for future metahumans to traffic. Instead, the heroes knew (via Batman sneaking around on Santa Prisca as part of the Anti-Light and reading Deathstroke's microexpressions) she had been a mole, and use their kindness towards her to convince her to fully side with them instead. As her brother Geo-Force had been LockedOutOfTheLoop, he executes Baron Bedlam, their EvilUncle, in rage, and [[FaceHeelTurn takes over]] the throne from his older brother Gregor instead. Because he was another member of the Outsiders, the Light banked on substituting Terra's attempted murder of Beast Boy with Geo-Force's violation of ThouShaltNotKill against Bedlam to set up their law, except ComicBook/BlackLightning accessed the communicator that Terra threw to the ground, catching Luthor red-handed, and works with Cyborg, Superboy, and Superman to successfully oust him from the United Nations, with Troia now elected the secretary-general of the United Nations.]]
** [[spoiler:However, the Light had other plans that enabled them to survive this. Luthor wasn't the only criminal inside the United Nations, so was [[EvilAllAlong Ambassador Zviad Baazovi]] of Markovia. He used psychic manipulation to enable Geo-Force's takeover from internal impulses he felt deep down, but were nudged to the surface, rendering him a PuppetKing to the Light, and securing their control of Markovia, with Luthor's ComicBook/InfinityInc serving the country. The Light essentially sacrificed their control of the United Nations (and their control of the Justice League through sanctions) for control of Markovia and Geo-Force. And as season 4 reveals, if the Light can't continue their metahuman trafficking rings from all the damage done to them in season 3, then they can at least manipulate Geo-Force into turning Markovia into a nation solely consisting of metahumans with the intent of giving them a peaceful place to live, while kicking out all non-metas into the neighboring nation of Vlatava. Gathering all their important metahuman assets into one place to rely on them for later.]]

* The rescue of Perdita requires the Team to make a gambit by bringing garlic pills that allowed several members susceptible to Queen Bee's control to fake being controlled, and fake blood so the ones not able to be controlled would be able to fake their deaths at the hands of the seemingly controlled Team members. But even when the heroes do save Perdita, the Light still gets the kryptonite she attempted to smuggle to the Justice League, they simply lose out on making Vertigo the face of an anti-metahuman movement which would have [[spoiler:allowed Markovia to gain more metahumans for the Light to keep tabs on]]. This was accomplished by creating Metallo and making him use kryptonite as a power source, meaning the heroes would have to kill him to take it, [[ThouShaltNotKill which they don't want to do]].

* Lex Luthor pulls off several at once by setting Superboy on Cadmus. The real purpose is to build a rapport with Superboy and leverage him with the [[SuperpoweredEvilSide patches]], so it doesn't matter how much he does. Discovering Match, the Genomorph city, ''and'' [[HasTwoDaddies getting to tell him where half his DNA comes from]] were all just best-case scenario outcomes.

** The team went to Bialya, disrupted their scientists' experiments as well as the telepath Psimon, and went home with a metallic sphere that is some kind of advanced technology. [[spoiler: It's not a big loss for The Light. They'll get more technology down the road. The main goal was to test their new partner's transportation system: a Boom-Tube.]]
** The Team BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame in "Summit". [[spoiler:They'd taken so many steps that no matter ''what'' the Light and Reach did, they were screwed. Summit continues? They're recording everything for an EngineeredPublicConfession to wreck the Reach's VillainWithGoodPublicity act. Artemis and Kaldur's FakeDefector act is uncovered? Miss Martian already replaced Deathstroke and fakes their deaths, Kaldur triggering what seems to be a DeadMansSwitch that reveals the Light was playing the Reach and shatters their alliance. Vandal Savage calls in an army of Mooks to kill them? The rest of the Team has already disguised themselves as mooks and turns the tables. The end result is the Ambassador, Black Manta, and the Brain and Monsieur Mallah are captured, their alliance obliterated, the Reach exposed as the invaders they really are, and Vandal Savage having a VillainousBreakdown.]]
*** [[spoiler:But even here the Light manage to pull a Xanatos Gambit. ComicBook/LexLuthor and Queen Bee are entirely absent from the scene (likely due to their VillainWithGoodPublicity acts), Vandal Savage has to unleash Klarion (by having the witch boy magically turn the sword Miss Martian telekinetically pointed at Vandal into a [[WeaksauceWeakness fire]] snake to make her let him go), who then teleports him out, and Ra's al Ghul will inevitably be resurrected with a Lazurus Pit (though in the long run he gives up his seat in the Light as well). Then The Light steals the War World from under the Justice League's nose, threatens the rest of the universe should they invade Earth, and then reveals that they are in league with freakin ''Darkseid''. It ends with Vandal Savage commenting, "Business as usual." Even when the heroes win they lose!]]
** These gambits continue even into [[WesternAnimation/YoungJusticeRevivalSeries the revival seasons]]. The third season finale sees the Team and Outsiders return to Markovia when Baron Bedlam escapes prison and performs a coup d'etat. [[spoiler:When they get in, Terra, performing her usual [[TheMole mole]] role, is ordered to assassinate the Outsiders' leader Beast Boy at a critical moment with the hopes that the Light can use it to set up [[SuperRegistrationAct registration rules]] for future metahumans to traffic. Instead, the heroes knew (via Batman sneaking around on Santa Prisca as part of the Anti-Light and reading Deathstroke's microexpressions) she had been a mole, and use their kindness towards her to convince her to fully side with them instead. As her brother Geo-Force had been LockedOutOfTheLoop, he executes Baron Bedlam, their EvilUncle, in rage, and [[FaceHeelTurn takes over]] the throne from his older brother Gregor instead. Because he was another member of the Outsiders, the Light banked on substituting Terra's attempted murder of Beast Boy with Geo-Force's violation of ThouShaltNotKill against Bedlam to set up their law, except ComicBook/BlackLightning accessed the communicator that Terra threw to the ground, catching Luthor red-handed, and works with Cyborg, Superboy, and Superman to successfully oust him from the United Nations, with Troia now elected the secretary-general of the United Nations.]]
*** [[spoiler:However, the Light had other plans that enabled them to survive this. Luthor wasn't the only criminal inside the United Nations, so was [[EvilAllAlong Ambassador Zviad Baazovi]] of Markovia. He used psychic manipulation to enable Geo-Force's takeover from internal impulses he felt deep down, but were nudged to the surface, rendering him a PuppetKing to the Light, and securing their control of Markovia, with Luthor's ComicBook/InfinityInc serving the country. The Light essentially sacrificed their control of the United Nations (and their control of the Justice League through sanctions) for control of Markovia and Geo-Force. And as season 4 reveals, if the Light can't continue their metahuman trafficking rings from all the damage done to them in season 3, then they can at least manipulate Geo-Force into turning Markovia into a nation solely consisting of metahumans with the intent of giving them a peaceful place to live, while kicking out all non-metas into the neighboring nation of Vlatava. Gathering all their important metahuman assets into one place to rely on them for later.]]

!!S1E25 Auld Acquaintance

!!S2 E7 Depths

!!S3 E8 Home Fires

!!S1 E1/E2 Independence Day/Fireworks

* T. O. Morrow deploying Red Inferno and Red Torpedo to attack Mount Justice and capture the Team is implicitly meant to lure out and capture Red Tornado. But by Artemis being forced to shut down the entire mountain with an EMP arrow, it forces Red Tornado to come to the mountain himself when he notices the shutdown, [[TheBadGuyWins allowing the enemy androids to reactive and take control of him anyway]].

!!S1E1/E2 Independence Day/Fireworks

!!S1E04 Dropzone

!!S1E05 Schooled

!!S1E08 Downtime

!!S1E09 Bereft

!!S1E10 Targets

!!S1E11 Terrors

!!S1E12 Homefront

!!S1E14 Revelation

!!S1E17 Disordered

!!S1E19 Misplaced

!!S1E20 Coldhearted

!!S1E21 Image

!!S1E22 Agendas

!!S1E23 Insecurities

!!S1E24 Usual Suspects

!!S2E7 Depths

!!S3E8 Home Fires

** On a smaller scale, Bane pulled one by stampeding the Team towards the forces of Kobra who conquered his island of Santa Prisca. Either they destroy Kobra (and Bane wins) or Kobra kills them and the Justice League destroys Kobra to avenge them (and Bane wins).

!!S1E05

!! S1E08 Downtime

* Manta's job is to steal enough of the Starro organism to be used as a weapon, so it doesn't matter if he gets the whole body or just a sample. As highlighted above, he is forced to destroy it when confronted by Aqualad and Tempest, so only a single arm is brought up to be used later.

!! S1E09 Bereft

!! S1E10 Targets

** What's impressive is that this itself was part of another Xanatos Gambit. The team stops the supervillains from breaking out. However, this attempted escape causes Amanda Waller, the warden, to lose her job to Hugo Strange, who is an agent of The Light. Now they have control over what is practically an army of supervillains. It ends up only being a temporary victory over time as [[spoiler:Hugo Strange is deposed offscreen and Amanda Waller reclaims Belle Reve in order to set up the ComicBook/SuicideSquad there]].

!! S1E14 Revelation

* And unsurprisingly, Vandal Savage pulls one. Regardless of whether they control the League long-term, the good guys will run into trouble when they go galactic because of [[ChekhovsGun the missing sixteen hours]], later revealed to be [[spoiler:an intergalactic rampage that gets Earth noticed by alien forces such as the Reach, Despero, and Mongul]].

* The rescue of Perdita requires the Team to make a gambit by bringing garlic pills that allowed several members susceptible to Queen Bee's control to fake being controlled, and fake blood so the ones not able to be controlled would be able to fake their deaths at the hands of the seemingly controlled Team members. But even when the heroes do save Perdita, the Light still gets the kryptonite she attempted to smuggle to the Justice League, they simply lose out on reinstating Count Vertigo on the throne in Vlatava. This was accomplished by creating Metallo and making him use kryptonite as a power source, meaning the heroes would have to kill him to take it, [[ThouShaltNotKill which they don't want to do]].

*** [[spoiler:However, the Light had other plans that enabled them to survive this. Luthor wasn't the only criminal inside the United Nations, so was [[EvilAllAlong Ambassador Zviad Baazovi]] of Markovia. He used psychic manipulation to enable Geo-Force's takeover from internal impulses he felt deep down, but were nudged to the surface, rendering him a PuppetKing to the Light, and securing their control of Markovia, and the now disgraced Luthor retreats to Markovia with his ComicBook/InfinityInc serving the country. The Light essentially sacrificed their control of the United Nations (and their control of the Justice League through sanctions) for control of Markovia and Geo-Force.]]

** The team stops Black Manta from stealing Starro's body from Atlantis. [[spoiler: We later find out that Black Manta resorted to Plan B and destroyed the Starro, leaving only a small sample which would be sent to the surface world and can be obtained later.]]
*** [[spoiler: The "later" takes place in the episode "Misplaced" where Klarion, Wotan, Blackbriar Thorn, Felix Faust, and Wizard [[KansasCityShuffle causes chaos to distract the heroes while Sportsmaster and Riddler steal the Starro sample which nobody would notice during that situation]].]]
** There is a gambit that is put into action since the pilot episode and culminates in episode 11. The ice-based villains, these being Mister Freeze, Icicle Jr., Killer Frost, and Captain Cold, were quickly defeated in episode 1. [[spoiler: This is part of their plan as each of them manage to get sent to Belle Reve, before carrying out their plan: Break every supervillain out of there.]]
** What's impressive is that [[spoiler:this itself was part of another Xanatos Gambit. The team stops the supervillains from breaking out. However, this attempted escape causes Amanda Waller, the warden, to lose her job to Hugo Strange, who is an agent of The Light. Now they have control over what is practically an army of supervillains.]] It ends up only being a temporary victory over time as [[spoiler:Hugo Strange is deposed offscreen and Amanda Waller reclaims Belle Reve in order to set up the ComicBook/SuicideSquad there]].
** In "Revelation", the Injustice League launched an attack on various cities using mutated giant plants, but were ultimately captured by the team and Justice League. [[spoiler: The Injustice League's mutant plants were actually provided by The Light, who was able to monitor their effectiveness as a weapon. More importantly, the Justice League mistakenly believed the ''Injustice League'' to be the secret society who were working behind the scenes. Now The Light can continue to work their schemes more easily.]]
** On a smaller scale, Bane pulled one by stampeding the Team towards the forces of Kobra who conquered his island of Santa Prisca. Either they destroy Kobra (and Bane wins) or Kobra kills them and the Justice League destroys Kobra to avenge them (and Bane wins).

* The main goal of the Light was to discredit Amanda Waller and get her replaced with their lackey Hugo Strange. It thus doesn't matter whether the mass jailbreak succeeds or not (in the end, only Riddler snuck out of the prison), they just need to make a decent attempt at it (the undercover Superboy and Miss Martian do manage to keep the majority of prisoners in).

* Klarion mainly wants to cause chaos, so splitting the adults and children both causes this, and gives his allies in the Light time to pull off operations (Sportsmaster and Riddler stealing the arm). Even if the spell is cut quickly, both of these are accomplished (it also has the side effect of forcing Zatara to [[FateWorseThanDeath become Doctor Fate]]).

*** [[spoiler:But even here the Light manage to pull a Xanatos Gambit. ComicBook/LexLuthor and Queen Bee are entirely absent from the scene (likely due to their VillainWithGoodPublicity acts), Vandal Savage has to unleash Klarion (by having the witch boy magically turn the sword Miss Martian telekinetically pointed at Vandal into a [[WeaksauceWeakness fire]] snake to make her let him go), and teleports him out, and Ra's al Ghul will inevitably be resurrected with a Lazurus Pit (though in the long run he gives up his seat in the Light as well). Then The Light steals the War World from under the Justice League's nose, threatens the rest of the universe should they invade Earth, and then reveals that they are in league with freakin ''Darkseid''. It ends with Vandal Savage commenting, "Business as usual." Even when the heroes win they lose!]]

*** [[spoiler: The "later" takes place in the episode "Misplaced" where Klarion, Wotan, Blackbriar Thorn, Felix Faust, and Wizard [[KansasCityShuffle causes chaos to distract the heroes while Sportsmaster and Riddler agents steal the Starro sample which nobody would notice during that situation]].]]

Featuring some of the most complex storytelling in a DC show, ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' provides an plethora of [[XanatosGambit Xanatos Gambits]]. Even after almost every defeat of their operatives, "The Light" manages some sort of victory and one step closer towards their endgame. This show is run by the man who created [[WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}} David Xanatos]], after all.

Featuring some of the most complex storytelling in a DC show, ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' provides an plethora of XanatosGambit's. Even after almost every defeat of their operatives, "The Light" manages some sort of victory and one step closer towards their endgame. This show is run by the man who created [[WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}} David Xanatos]], after all.

** The team went to Bialya, disrupted their scientists' experiments, and went home with a metallic sphere that is some kind of advanced technology. [[spoiler: It's not a big loss for The Light. They'll get more technology down the road. The main goal was to test their new partner's transportation system: a Boom-Tube.]]

*** [[spoiler: The "later" takes place in the episode "Misplaced" where Klarion [[KansasCityShuffle causes chaos to distract the heroes while the Light's agents steal the Starro sample which nobody would notice during that situation]].]]
** There is a gambit that is put into action since the pilot episode and culminates in episode 11. The ice-based villains were quickly defeated in episode 1. [[spoiler: This is part of their plan as each of them manage to get sent to Belle Reve, before carrying out their plan: Break every supervillain out of there.]]
** What's impressive is that [[spoiler:this itself was part of another Xanatos Gambit. The team stops the supervillains from breaking out. However, this attempted escape causes Amanda Waller, the warden, to lose her job to Hugo Strange, who is an agent of The Light. Now they have control over what is practically an army of supervillains.]]

** On a smaller scale, Bane pulled one by stampeding Young Justice towards his enemies in KOBRA. Either they destroy KOBRA (and Bane wins) or KOBRA kills them and the Justice League destroys KOBRA to avenge them (and Bane wins).
** The Team BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame in "Summit". [[spoiler:They'd taken so many steps that no matter ''what'' the Light and Reach did, they were screwed. Summit continues? They're recording everything for an EngineeredPublicConfession to wreck the Reach's VillainWithGoodPublicity act. Artemis and Kaldur's FakeDefector act is uncovered? Miss Martian already replaced Deathstroke and fakes their deaths, Kaldur triggering what seems to be a DeadMansSwitch that reveals the Light was playing the Reach and shatters their alliance. Vandal Savage calls in an army of Mooks to kill them? The rest of the Team has already disguised themselves as mooks and turns the tables. The end result is the Ambassador, Black Manta, and the Brain captured, their alliance obliterated, the Reach exposed as the invaders they really are, and Vandal Savage having a VillainousBreakdown.]]
*** [[spoiler:But even here the Light manage to pull a Xanatos Gambit. ComicBook/LexLuthor, Queen Bee, Vandal Savage, and Klarion manage to get away, and Ras al Ghul will inevitably be resurrected with a Lazurus Pit. Then The Light steals the War World from under the Justice League's nose, threatens the rest of the universe should they invade Earth, and then reveals that they are in league with freakin ''Darkseid''. It ends with Vandal Savage commenting, "Business as usual." Even when the heroes win they lose!]]
** These gambits continue even into [[WesternAnimation/YoungJusticeRevivalSeries the revival seasons]]. The third season finale sees the Team and Outsiders return to Markovia when Baron Bedlam escapes prison and performs a coup d'etat. [[spoiler:When they get in, Terra, performing her usual TheMole role, is ordered to assassinate the Outsiders' leader Beast Boy at a critical moment with the hopes that the Light can use it to set up registration rules for future metahumans to traffic. Instead, the heroes knew she had been a mole, and use their kindness towards her to convince her to fully side with them instead. As her brother Geo-Force had been LockedOutOfTheLoop, he executes Baron Bedlam, their EvilUncle, in rage, and takes over the throne from his older brother Gregor instead. Because he was another member of the Outsiders, the Light banked on substituting Terra's attempted murder of Beast Boy with Geo-Force's violation of ThouShaltNotKill against Bedlam to set up their law, except ComicBook/BlackLightning accessed the communicator that Terra threw to the ground, catching Luthor red-handed, and works with Cyborg, Superboy, and Superman to successfully oust him from the United Nations, with Troia now the secretary-general of the United Nations.]]
*** [[spoiler:However, the Light had other plans that enabled them to survive this. Luthor wasn't the only criminal inside the United Nations, so was [[EvilAllAlong Zviad Baazovi]], Markovia's ambassador. He used psychic manipulation to enable Geo-Force's takeover from internal impulses he felt deep down, but were nudged to the surface, rendering him a PuppetKing to the Light, and securing their control of Markovia, and the now disgraced Luthor retreats to Markovia with his ComicBook/InfinityInc serving the country, while the heroes benefited from the now lifted sanctions and the merging of the Justice League factions.]]

* The seeming mission of Dr. Ivo is to destroy the Justice League with Amazo, but the real objective is to obtain as many of their powers as possible and then re-obtain the robot whether or not they defeat it.

* Manta's job is to steal enough of the Starro organism to be used as a weapon, so it doesn't matter if he gets the whole body or just a sample.

* Psimon removing the team's memories guarantees that they'll be vulnerable and disunited. Regardless of whether they escape or not, this at least buys the army time to figure out who they are and what they're doing. This is done successfully.

* Lex Luthor and Ras arrange for an attempted assassination of the former. Regardless of whether superheroes showed up or not, Mercy would've protected Lex with Lexcorp weapons and created the demand for them in the two Rhelasias. The Team interfering is an unexpected bonus, as it lets them covertly [[spoiler: get intel from Red Arrow]] while they're there.

* The main goal of the Light was to discredit Amanda Waller and get her replaced with their lackey Hugo Strange. It thus doesn't matter whether the mass jailbreak succeeds or not, they just need to make a decent attempt at it.

* Regardless of whether the Injustice League succeed (unlikely) or fail, the Justice League will think they've uncovered the masterminds that have been hounding them, getting them off the Light's back.

* The Forever People showing up is one for Desaad. Either he successfully co-opts Infinity Man permanently and gets a powerful new toy, or he successfully stalls them long enough for everyone to escape.

* Klarion mainly wants to cause chaos, so splitting the adults and children both causes this, and gives his allies in the Light time to pull off operations. Even if the spell is cut quickly, both of these are accomplished.

* Vandal Savage gets one with his part in the heart delay plan. Regardless of whether he kills Kid Flash or not (admittedly unlikely this time around), he succeeds in making the princess's death look natural.
* The plan only fails because Kid pulls a Xanatos of his own: fake the princess's death and then covertly put her in the room with Vertigo. Regardless of what he says, Vertigo will now openly reveal his criminality, which means she can revoke his immunity.

* Queen Bee pulls one with blackmailing Miss Martian. Depending on whether M'gann lets herself be blackmailed, Queen Bee either gets a mole inside the team or sabotages their trust in each other.

* The Light pull one with the ambush. Regardless of whether anyone on the Team is hurt (unlikely, since they're trying to throw the fight, but not impossible in the chaos of battle), the Team is gonna end up with the Starro tech and take it to the League.

* And unsurprisingly, Vandal Savage pulls one. Regardless of whether they control the League long-term, the good guys will run into trouble when they go galactic because of [[ChekhovsGun the missing sixteen hours.]]

Featuring some of the most complex storytelling in a DC show, . ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' provides an plethora of XanatosGambit's. Even after almost every defeat of their operatives, "The Light" manages some sort of victory and one step closer towards their endgame. This show is run by the man who created [[WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}} David Xanatos]], after all.

Being created by the trope namer, and featuring some of the most complex storytelling in a DC show, they are rampant.

!!In General:

[[folder: Season 1]]

[[folder: Season 2]]

!!

[[/folder]]