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| 6 | {{Batman Gambit}}s in {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}. |
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| 9 | * In ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'', [[spoiler: Azusa]] pulls this on Korosensei in the extra chapters to lure him into an assassination. [[spoiler: After discovering that she has an inoperable brain tumor, she learns about Korosensei from the four assassins who frequent her pub. She then purposefully signs a contract with loan sharks that ends up getting her kidnapped, forcing the assassins and Korosensei to rescue her. After the rescue, she planned to blow up the building to either kill Korosensei and leave the money to her daughter; or, if Korosensei didn't show up, to kill the loan sharks, erase her debt, and protect her daughter, while leaving her daughter with a considerable amount of money from the life insurance she took out on herself.]] |
| 10 | * ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': Erwin's speech to the graduating recruits is one example. [[spoiler: First, he hints at some vital information regarding the Survey Corps upcoming plans to eradicate the Titans once and for all. Then, he bluntly describes the Corps absurdly high mortality rates and how the recruits are almost sure to be eaten by Titans. The first piece of information is to lure any Titan Shifters hiding among the recruits into joining the Survey Corps where he can keep an eye on them, while the second scares away almost anyone who isn't a mole.]] |
| 11 | ** Armin ends up becoming very good at these, although [[spoiler:Bertolt]] manages not to fall ''entirely'' for one. |
| 12 | * ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'': Caerula Sanguis applies a Batman Gambit in a rather unorthodox way: one-on-one battle. In Volume 6 of the ''Last Order'' storyline, after a token unarmed exchange with [[ActionGirl Alita]] and a cloud of throwing knives, she announces a special technique called the Eight-Block Death Gate Array. In the beginning, it looks merely like a fast combination of sword strikes. However, this is only the beginning of the ruse. The Array is actually not a technique or even a combination, but a tactic custom-tailored to every single enemy she meets. By using her [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld 700 years of combat experience]] and her ability to sense neural pulse flow and thus infer the intentions and thoughts of her opponents, she takes the terrain as well as the opponent's capabilities, reflexes, and even their personalities all into account, shaping the match such that all her opponent's actions, both conscious and unconscious, lead them inexorably to a location where they will be completely helpless against her full attack. She is apparently good enough that she can suss this out completely within the first few seconds of any given fight. The only ways to defeat the Array in a duel are to be completely certain you are doing one thing while doing something completely different (such as freezing when every cell in your body is yelling for you to run), or by completely banishing one's ingrained reflexes, becoming completely aware of the self and the world, and thus able to make true choices. |
| 13 | * Griffith from ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' does this against the Queen of Midland and a conspiracy of nobles who wanted him dead. The conspirators apparently poison Griffith, but unbeknownst to them, Foss, the key figure in the conspiracy to kill Griffith, is blackmailed by Griffith into putting a drug meant to give the [[FauxDeath appearance of death]] in his cup instead of poison. The Queen and her nobles, believing themselves to be victorious, all gather together in celebration at her castle, and that's when Griffith springs his trap, having them all locked inside the castle and then having the place set ablaze, killing them all. |
| 14 | * Lucius Zogratis from ''Manga/BlackClover'' is so good at this that if any other villain makes a move, it's likely to fall right into what he wants them to do. It's implied that he was [[spoiler:working around the possibility that Patry slays Julius, and by extension, him, so Vangenance can be freed from Patry and can be sacrificed to the Dark Triad unimpeded. Said Dark Triad enact the Qliphoth Tree Ritual (they are unaware of the big picture and were just conducting the ritual for personal reasons) and summon Lucifero half-manifested so the king of devils can be killed in a barely managable level (on the Magic Knight's side) and he could seize his power for himself. It went as well as he expected.]] |
| 15 | * ''Manga/BlackLagoon'': |
| 16 | ** Eda has a very crude (but effective and hilarious) one set up that she uses to bushwhack "Greenback" Jane. In an effort to get the printing plates Jane designed for counterfeiting US dollars [[spoiler:on behalf of the US government because she's an undercover CIA agent]], she gives Jane, who is being hunted by TheMafia, directions to a motel and then tells the mafia where she is. Jane then escapes from the motel via the directions Eda literally painted on the ceiling, right back into the hands of Eda and Lagoon Associates. Even the other characters think the plan is stupid. |
| 17 | ** [[CreepyTwins Hansel and Gretel]] managed to divert the majority of the [[BountyHunter hired]] [[CarnivalOfKillers guns]] out for their bounty with one of these. Step #1: get a car with tinted windows so no one can see who's inside. Step #2: Bribe two local orphans to pose as you by putting on your clothes and wigs similar to your hair, then get them in the car and have them drive off. Step #3: Laugh as the stupid bounty hunters blow the car to smithereens and realize how they've been had by two little kids. |
| 18 | ** Rock attempts one that would bring Roanapour to the world's attention in the "Roberta's Blood Trail" Arc by manipulating or predicting the actions of just about everyone in the city. [[spoiler: And he would would have gotten away with it too, if he'd known about the undercover CIA agent that he practically told his entire plan to.]] |
| 19 | * ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': |
| 20 | ** In the anime-only Zanpakutou Unknown Tales arc, Muramasa pulls on one Ichigo. Knowing that, as the hero, Ichigo feels the need to rush in to protect his friends and allies, using full power, Muramasa sets up a scenario whereby Ichigo has to do exactly that to save Yamamoto who has been trapped by Muramasa behind a barrier since the start of the rebellion. [[spoiler: The truth is that Yamamoto had set up the barrier to keep Muramasa away from and wasn't trapped at all. Muramasa needed Ichigo's power, combined with his own, to break Yamamoto's barrier and gain access to Yamamoto's zanpakutou.]] Murmamasa had even gone to the extreme of ensuring that any shinigami travelling with Ichigo would be isolated from him along the way so that they couldn't work out Muramasa's plan and warn Ichigo. As it was, those shinigami only worked out the truth at the last minute, and only because Muramasa going to the trouble of isolating them from Ichigo clued them in to Muramasa's real plan. They were therefore unable to warn Ichigo in time and Muramasa's plan succeeded. |
| 21 | ** In the manga Aizen kidnaps Orihime because he knows that Soul Society knows he'd be interested in Orihime's unusual power. Although Soul Society's plan was to leave Orihime alone until they could plan a proper invasion of Hueco Mundo, Ichigo impulsively rushes off with his friends to rescue her. This is exactly what Aizen hoped for. The result is that Soul Society is forced to send in four captains earlier than planned, at which point Aizen shuts the door behind them, leaving Ichigo's group and four captains stranded in Hueco Mundo. This allows Aizen to confront a vastly reduced Gotei 13 force at Karakura Town. |
| 22 | ** Yhwach sees that Yamamoto's right-hand man was killed in the Wandenreich's declaration of war, and ol' Yama's greatest trait is his rage. [[spoiler:So he pulls a ReallyADoombot by having a lackey who can mimic people's forms confront Yamamoto as a fake Yhwach, knowing that the Shinigami leader would go full blast at his bitter rival out of sheer anger. When Yamamoto finishes that fight, he's spent enough strength to be vulnerable to Yhwach stealing his Bankai and then killing him.]] |
| 23 | * ''Manga/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'' shows 16-year-old [[UsefulNotes/TheBorgias Cesare Borgia]] (who would grow up to be the inspiration for Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli's ''Literature/ThePrince'') launching quite a few of these, showing the tendency for reckless self-endangerment that would get him killed in battle at 31 years old. The task of [[DistressedDude rescuing him]] usually falls to TheConsigliere Miguel da Corella, who then gives him a good WhatTheHellHero speech, saying that it's wrong for him to sacrifice himself like that when so many people are dependent on him. |
| 24 | ** He runs off in disguise to a festival without his guards, causing the assassins who have been chasing him to attack him more openly, and catches them that way. |
| 25 | ** During the confrontation with the culprits behind the factory fire, Cesare not only endangers himself, but also Angelo, the Florentine commoner [[TheWatson point-of-view character]] who's become attached to Cesare despite Miguel's warnings. Because of a level of purity that Miguel later accuses Cesare of taking advantage of, Angelo [[spoiler: steps in front of a dagger for Cesare]]. |
| 26 | * Lelouch, the protagonist of ''Anime/CodeGeass'', does this a lot. Along with Lelouch, Cornelia and Schneizel also have been known to pull less convoluted Batman Gambits of their own. [[InTheBlood It must run in the family]]. |
| 27 | ** To defeat Mao, a mind-reader, Lelouch distracts him with [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat a recording that accurately predicts his responses to Lelouch's statements]], allowing the police to close in without him noticing. |
| 28 | *** In the second season, Lelouch pulls this stunt again against [[spoiler:Schneizel. Schneizel really should have known better as someone much smarter than Mao on paper, but Lelouch was still able to read his personality flaws and drove most of the recorded conversation, based on predicting that Schneizel would disagree with his opinions, lacked motivation, and preferred to die rather than lose]]. |
| 29 | ** When Mao came back, Lelouch used his own power of absolute command to give ''himself'' orders to tell Suzaku to charge in guns blazing when he heard Lelouch scream, then [[MemoryGambit wiped his own memory of this]] so that Mao couldn't see through the scheme by reading his mind. Lelouch then plays right into Mao's hands, seemingly completely defeated. When he screams, Suzaku comes in and the gambit is revealed. It's hopelessly convoluted and yet masterful. |
| 30 | ** When Lelouch, as Zero the masked terrorist, claims that he wishes to join Nunally's Special Administrative Region of Japan along with his Black Knights, he later makes a secret pact with the Britannians to have him pardoned for his crimes and be exiled safely, which allows the Britannians to attempt to engineer the situation in their favor: they would broadcast that they were pardoning Zero for all crimes at the opening ceremony, and Zero only, therefore meaning that the other members of the Black Knights were still accountable for crimes, and were thus betrayed by Zero. The Britannians had hoped that this would trigger a riot amongst the betrayed Black Knights, which would provide them with ample excuse to put them down with lethal force. Problem is, Lelouch had earlier made the point that Zero is an ideal, not a man. So, when everyone at the assembly suddenly puts on Zero masks, no one can try to force the issue. The only person who knows his identity, Suzaku, can't call him on it. Thus, they are all granted immunity and a safe trip out. It heavily relied on Suzaku being sentimental enough to stop the other government officials from opening fire on the crowd, and it came within a hair's breadth of backfiring. |
| 31 | ** Lelouch often has plans that rely on the fact that while "other" people have a sense of {{honor|BeforeReason}}, he does not, and uses it to trip them up. Good examples include the way he tricked Guilford into a duel of honor, and then pulled a sneaky trick on him. There's also him using the UFN leaders as hostages to trick the Black Knights into preventing Schneizel from nuking his ass, forcing him into conventional strategy. |
| 32 | *** Of course, this is more along the lines of other people believing that he ''doesn't'' have a sense of honour, when he really does. Of course, manipulating the battlefield he and Guilford was on was indeed a very sneaky trick, it's nothing that shouldn't have been expected. And it was a hostage situation, after all, so Guildford was the first to use a sneaky trick. And he certainly wouldn't have harmed the UFN leaders, even though he had weapons trained on them -- at least, not the two young girls he's familiar with. |
| 33 | *** The UFN example is doubly appropriate when you realise that Schenizel ''does'' know that Lelouch won't hurt the UFN Leaders. That's why he has Nunnally at his side, and has her accuse Lelouch -- by doing so, Lelouch becomes incapable of using any FLEIJA weapons that he may have, for fear of killing Nunnally, and Nunnally fails to realise that's what is happening, and is willing to go along as a result. Of course, Lelouch never had a FLEIJA in the first place, but he may have considered the idea as a more appropriate alternative to creating the FLEIJA Canceller. In fact, Schneizel himself planned to kill the UFN Leaders, as well as the Black Knights. No, Schneizel attempts to fight Lelouch conventionally, because he's certain of his own invulnerability and wants to try confronting Lelouch through wits, rather than brute force, and if can't win, he has FLEIJA as an alternative. And when his patience wears thin, and he does. resort to FLEIJA.. that's just what Lelouch wanted. |
| 34 | * An example where it isn't set up by a villain: ''everything'' in ''Manga/CardCaptorSakura'' is an elaborate plan by Clow Reed to ensure that his magical creations would have the best master (Sakura) after his death. The reason Sakura captures the cards and then masters them is because if she didn't, they'll cause a lot of trouble in her town. However, Eriol (the half of Clow's {{reincarnation}} with all of his previous life's memories) made sure she wasn't in any real danger (or anyone else in town, for that matter). This is possible because Clow was prophetic to the point of near-omniscience, able to see the future so perfectly that he WAS able to see every consequence of his actions and what to cause to happen. Except for Yukito falling for Touya, Eriol admits that one surprised him (he had intended Yue/Yukito to have a BodyguardCrush on Sakura, but Yukito fell for Sakura's ''older brother'' instead). As an interesting side point, the whole point of this in the manga was to [[BroughtDownToNormal rid himself of that power]], which would require Sakura to be a stronger mage than him. |
| 35 | ** Of course, there was also the goal of making sure the Clow Cards power supply didn't fail, leading to their deaths, too. They couldn't run on Clow's residual energy forever, but the real danger was when they were left in limbo and Sakura had to master them. |
| 36 | * ''Manga/CaseClosed'': |
| 37 | ** It is well known that [[Manga/MagicKaito Kaitou KID]] has no problem with [[MuggedForDisguise knocking out men and stealing their clothing to disguise himself as them]] but won't steal the clothing off a woman, preferring to simply get copies of their clothes. As such, Tomoko Suzuki orders custom made, original dresses from another country for herself, her daughter, and her daughter's best friend and has the dresses delivered the day of the heist, ensuring that Kid won't have time to replicate the clothing. Thus, as long as these women are wearing these dresses, everyone will know that they can't be KID in disguise. [[spoiler: A solid plan, but too bad she gets OutGambitted, as KID already made a deal with Sonoko; she willingly gives him her dress and pretends that she was knocked out.]] |
| 38 | ** Both Conan and Vermouth count on Haibara's MartyrWithoutACause tendencies during the Mystery Train arc. Both expect that once Haibara becomes aware of the presence of the Black Organization aboard the train, she will find a private place to temporarily undo her regression in the hopes that dying as a woman the Detective Boys have only ever seen once would lessen the chances of being connected to her than if they saw their fellow child murdered. Vermouth planned to let Haibara mousetrap herself and leave herself open to being killed by Bourbon. Conan planned to get her to safety and make her part of a plan to let the bad guys think they succeeded. In the end [[spoiler:Conan succeeds, and Vermouth is too late in realizing it. Conan is also aware that Vermouth has no intention of revealing his and Ai's regressed states and incorporated that detail into his plan]]. |
| 39 | ** Conan figured out the Black Organization's eventual steps when it came to wanting to reobtain Kir into their midst. While Akai Shuuichi and Conan made a deal with Kir to let her be captured by the organization to join them as a second-double-agent (Kir already being [[TheMole an infiltrating agent from the CIA]]), Conan devised a plan with Akai Shuuichi. Conan knew that the organization would be suspicious of Kir's return and demand her loyalty be proven by [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten killing Shuuichi]], and Gin even demanding that Kir use a head-shot on Shuuichi and then burn his corpse. Conan told Shuuichi to put glue on his fingertips to prevent any of his fingerprints getting on anything, and using a dead organization henchman's fingerprints to serve as fingerprints for 'Akai Shuuichi's corpse', which were on Conan's cellphone from a little gamble he made to figure out ''who'' the organization's henchman even was. He also knew that the organization would have [[MasterOfDisguise Vermouth]] dress up as a scarred Akai Shuuichi, to see if that man honestly had died or his death was faked, with the FBI agents' reactions (who didn't know about the plan between Shuuichi and Conan) proving that his death was real. And when Bourbon confronted Okiya Subaru, believing him to be Akai Shuuichi in disguise and his death actually having [[FakingTheDead been faked]], Conan made sure to have Akai Shuuichi himself appear and throw Bourbon off-track, while having someone else disguise himself as Okiya Subaru to keep the charade up. Even Shuuichi was impressed with Conan's plan (which spanned hundreds of chapters back) and said "Who would have thought it would come to this", meaning who besides Conan would have figured this out. |
| 40 | * Light uses this technique in ''Manga/DeathNote'' by having Misa and himself give up control of the Death Note to another individual to throw L off his track and clear his and Misa's names. The plan is uncannily successful, and ultimately [[spoiler:L is killed]] as a result. |
| 41 | ** "Just as planned!" |
| 42 | ** In the live-action movie, however, things go differently: [[spoiler:L figures out what happened the second he gets his hands on Light's note and sees the rule about losing memories. Seeing Light's plan, L plays along, writing his own name in a Death Note (making him immune to death by any other Note for 23 days), and catches Light in the act.]] |
| 43 | ** What's particularly notable about the manga example is that technically the person whose actions Light is anticipating is ''himself''. And it's not even really himself, but rather what he ''would'' have been had he never found the Death Note. In other words, he has to anticipate just what he would have done and how he would have acted had he never found the Death Note, do the same process with Misa, work in how L and the gang would react to that, and ''then'' work in how the ''as of yet to him unknown'' corporate executive is going to act, ''and then figure out how everyone's going to react to that''. |
| 44 | *** He also knew that if the plan had failed, he would have been safe and lived, although not as Kira, because [[spoiler: Higuchi]] would be caught and blamed for everything. Light would then be off the hook and live his life out normally... though, as the live-action movie shows, [[spoiler:even that wasn't without a failure condition]]. |
| 45 | ** L staves off many episodes using this technique, in fact his entire operation in the first half could probably be summed up as this. Serial killer eliminating prisoners all over the world through methods unseen, unheard, and untraceable? Set yourself up on television [[spoiler:with a substitute]] so that Kira will attempt to make a move against you. Before he does that, make sure the broadcast is isolated in the single region where similar killings were determined to have started. Thus, since your substitute was killed in that area and was killed in the same way as many others, that person must be in that area, watching TV at some point, and must only be able to kill with a name and a face. Needless to say, Light is [[ParanoiaFuel thoroughly whipped by this]]. |
| 46 | *** The next part of L's operation also did this. There was no way to witness Kira physically, but L made extreme observation of his killing patterns and even formed a "personality profile" off of it. When he whittled this down to Light Yagami, he decided to meet Light in college. And how did he introduce himself? Telling Light that he was the detective hunting Kira, and [[MagnificentBastard knowing subconsciously]] that there was no way Light could do anything about it. He then matches Kira's characteristics -- childishness, poor sportsmanship -- with Light's regular behaviors. As the investigation winds down and lines have been drawn, L warns his investigation team that should he be killed within a certain timespan, they should follow his original assumption that Light IS Kira. |
| 47 | * Dante of ''Anime/DevilMayCryTheAnimatedSeries'' does this in the seventh episode "Wishes Come True" in order to rescue someone thrown in Devil's Prison due to the machinations of an evil demon mask. He first causes a disturbance in the city in order to get himself arrested and thrown into the prison. Then when he's faced with the creepy Warden, he kicks his ass in order to get himself thrown into the special block of the prison where the guy he's trying to rescue is being held. This also has the side benefit of placing him in a position to stop [[spoiler:the sadistic hunt performed by the Warden and the guards upon the inmates of that block when they go demonic]]. |
| 48 | * In ''Manga/DGrayMan'' the Millennium Earl orchestrates one in the Alma Karma arc, so much that the whole arc could be summed up as and is compared to a theatre play with the Earl as the director, the Exorcists as the actors and the Fourteenth as the spectator. He invades the Black Order with his Akumas and Noah and has everyone there immobilized. Meanwhile the other Noah ambush the Exorcists around the world so they can't join the headquarters. Allen and Kanda fought into getting to the Black Order alone where the Earl waits for them. There they use Alma's brain to awaken Alma Karma so that Kanda has to fight him and the exorcists have to fight the Third Exorcists. The Earl anticipates that Allen would try to stop them but Kanda wouldn't listen and eventually badly hurt Allen with his Innocence. All this to force the awakening of the fourteenth Noah inside Allen. Then all the Order acts as the Earl expected: They put Allen in jail and force him to escape and go AWOL. |
| 49 | * In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Vegito pulls this off on Majin Buu. It seems that Vegito can beat Buu at any time, but is just toying with him, while the Kais are asking why he just doesn't GetItOverWith. Turns out Vegito is purposely making Buu angry enough to get desperate, which is when Buu starts absorbing people. Vegito allows himself to get absorbed on purpose so he can rescue Gohan, Trunks, Goten, and Piccolo, who were absorbed earlier. |
| 50 | ** He clearly gets this from Vegeta, who also pulls a couple Batman Gambits throughout the series. In the Namek saga he steals all of Frieza's dragon balls while both Frieza and Zarbon are in the same ship as he is, by fooling them into thinking he'd already left the ship. |
| 51 | ** Piccolo pulls one off against Imperfect Cell by tricking him into revealing who he is, how he was created and what his plan is by making him think that he is going to die after having all the energy in his right arm drained from Imperfect Cell. |
| 52 | ** Cell pulls an excellent one off against [[spoiler: Vegeta. Cell, in his semi-perfect form, [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown was getting dominated by Vegeta]], who for the few episodes that the fight last for, [[ADayInTheLimelight had become the strongest character in the show]] due to becoming [[HourOfPower an Ascended Super Saiyan]]. Because he was made up of the cells of Vegeta and other pure blooded Saiyans such as Goku, Raditz and Nappa, he knew that Vegeta's greatest weakness is his pride and that a Saiyan would be willing to go to great lengths for good battle because they love a challenge and love to fight. Semi-Perfect Cell then uses that weakness to manipulate Vegeta by telling him that if he had the chance to reach his perfect form he would become a worthy adversary, and he claims that Vegeta would be no match for him. Vegeta, [[BloodKnight who hungers for a challenge, any chance to prove that he is the best no matter what the risk and thrives for any good fight in general]], lets his ego get the best of him [[HonorBeforeReason and falls for Cell's trap]] by [[NiceJobBreakingItHero stepping back from battle, allowing Semi-Perfect Cell an open opportunity to absorb Android 18, so that he will become a worthy opponent and actively helped him by stopping Trunks from interfering so he could absorb Android 18]]. Cell eventually finds and absorbs Android 18 and achieves his perfect form and then proceeds to [[NighInvulnerability no sell]] [[TheWorfBarrage EVERY attack Vegeta throws at him]], [[CurbStompBattle kicks Vegeta’s ass senseless with little effort]] and [[LampshadeHanging rubs in Vegeta’s face how stupid he was to help him achieve his perfect form and become more powerful and how he should have killed him when he had the chance]]]]. |
| 53 | ** Goku, [[IdiotHero of all characters]], manages to pull one off against Cell in the climax of the Android Saga. When he finds out that his son is indeed stronger than him, and still had extra reserves of power, he sets up a situation so Gohan will unleash that power against Cell. He volunteers to fight Cell first and gives it everything he has before he gives up, and then lets Gohan fight against him after he manages to study both Goku and Cell's fighting styles. Goku expects Cell to push Gohan to his limits so he'll unleashed his hidden power, which is exactly what Cell does and Gohan becomes the first ever Super Saiyan 2 in the series and proceeds to [[CurbStompBattle hand Cell his own ass on a platter.]] The only thing Goku didn't expect was that Gohan would get cocky and not finish Cell off immediately, or that Cell would blow himself up to try to blow up the Earth when he knew he was going to lose, forcing Goku to sacrifice himself to save everyone. |
| 54 | * [[ManipulativeBastard Izaya Orihara]] of ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'' oozes this trope like a fountain. He has stated that it is solely for his own amusement, but there is no denying that his manipulative capabilities over the residents of Ikebukuro are amazing. Few have been able to work their way around his plans. The only person Izaya opts to work his way around is Shizuo, whose combination of SuperStrength, intense hatred for Izaya, and being TooDumbToFool make him a very dangerous potential SpannerInTheWorks who Izaya will go to great lengths to keep otherwise occupied with relentless trolling. |
| 55 | * In ''Manga/Eyeshield21'', Hiruma, for most of the time, always had some plans that enables him to pull a comeback move from dire straits for his team. Some of his plans often seem ridiculous or just plain batshit insane, but they work most of the time. |
| 56 | * ''Manga/FairyTail'': |
| 57 | ** The Phantom Lord's Guild Master, Jose Porla uses his [[WaveMotionGun super weapon Jupiter]] on the Fairy Tail guild knowing Erza would most likely block the attack. This, combined with the knowledge that Makarov had already been crippled and other S-Class mages were indisposed, would leave the Fairy Tail guild weak enough so that he could force them to hand over Lucy. Of course, ''that'' plan goes to pot quickly since he underestimates both the guild's refusal to just hand her over as well as the fighting strength of the remaining guild members against his Element 4 and Gajeel. |
| 58 | ** Jellal pulls one on the Magic Council by [[spoiler:using his Thought Projection Siegrain and his ally Ultear already on the Council to manipulate them into firing the Etherion at the Tower of Heaven by using their fear of Zeref and the revelation of the R-System's ability to bring someone BackFromTheDead as the cherry on top, which ended up providing the needed magical power to activate the Tower's abilities for the revival.]] |
| 59 | ** Gray and Lyon pull one [[spoiler:on Racer by feigning an argument that leaves Gray trapped in ice by Lyon. Lyon then takes advantage of Racer's pride by mocking his speed, luring him far away so that Gray (now set up in a high position thanks to the ice) would be outside Racer's area of effect that slowed everyone's time, thus allowing Gray to fire a finishing arrow.]] |
| 60 | * ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' -- [[spoiler:Father's entire plan coming to fruition rests on the fact that he and the homunculi knew that the sacrifices would never back down and leave the country.]] |
| 61 | ** Dr. Marcoh also pulls one when [[spoiler:he springs a trap on Envy by having TheMole Zampano call him and give him Marcoh's location. Marcoh knew Envy was so cruel and ruthless that he would personally come down to screw with him even more.]] |
| 62 | ** And in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'', the villains' main schtick is that they use many small acts of violence to cause social unrest, then sit back and watch as that unrest blossoms into war and people kill each other by the thousands. [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters If humanity wasn't so willing to resort to violence, the villains' plans would never work.]] At one point, a VillainWithGoodPublicity actually orders his subordinates ''not'' to attack a civilian population, because he knows they'll find some excuse to attack anyway, but when the blood settles he'll still be blameless in the public eye. |
| 63 | *** And the actual goal of the entire plan is entirely based on this as well. The targeted populations have advanced knowedge of alchemy, including methods for creating a Philosopher's Stone. The villain is relying on somebody to use that knowledge and manufacture a Stone, which can then be stolen. |
| 64 | ** Also in the 2003 anime, more than once Colonel Mustang orders Edward into a situation where his desire for justice causes him to go off mission and break the rules. Mustang chastises him for it, but Edward's good deeds always turn out to be very convenient for Mustang... |
| 65 | * This is pretty much the basis for ''Manga/GambleFish'' in which the hero Shirasagi pulls off multiple gambits, sometimes right when he's in the middle of one of his cons or challenges, to ensure his opponents lose their advantage. |
| 66 | ** In one example, Shirasagi plays a high stake spoker game against a magician who is a master of dealing and swapping out cards to ensure she always gets a winning hand. Shirasagi constantly loses all his money until eventually he has one last thing to bet: His own finger. He loses this round, and the finger gets chopped off with a chainsaw. But it turns out this was his master plan all along, as he is able to use his bloody hand to mark the cards, ensuring his opponent is unable to use her card tricks and forcing her to forfeit. |
| 67 | * The entire plot of ''Anime/GhostInTheShell1995'' is one big Batman Gambit by an opponent aptly called ''the Puppetmaster''. [[spoiler:At one point he hacks into the heavily secured factory that builds the replacement parts for the Major's and Batou's cybernetic bodies and had it create a unique cybernetic body. Then he had the body walk out of the factory and to the next highway to step in front of the next passing truck. As access to the factory would also allow him to tamper with the replacement parts for Section 9, they really want the remains of the rogue cyborg body in their lab for analyzation. Exactly where the AI wanted to be, but couldn't get to without his handlers stopping him. Everything that happens in the movie is all part of his plan to get an opportunity to talk with the Major.]] |
| 68 | * As part of being CrazyPrepared, top assassin ''Manga/Golgo13'' uses Batman Gambits among others all the time. One example is in Episode 42 of the animated television series. Where four assassins are hired to take him out -- one of them being female. After being attacked, Golgo 13 kills the three men, but leaves the woman alive. He knocks her out and takes her to a wood cabin. He strips her naked and burns the clothes. He pays a young woman to allow him to use her cabin in exchange for a bright red coat. When Golgo leaves the cabin, the naked woman knocks the young lady out and takes her red coat. She meets up with her boss and they try again to kill Golgo 13. But this is what he wanted: To make the woman lure the mastermind out of hiding, and to make her boss and herself an easy target by the bright red coat she was now wearing. [[spoiler:Golgo 13 kills them both with a single rifle shot.]] |
| 69 | * In ''Literature/GonnaBeTheTwinTail'', when the Ultimaguil invade a world, they deliberately leave some of their advanced technology where somebody can find it. Someone finds it and uses it to become a superhero and fight them. This inevitably causes the public to love and idolize them. Since the Ultimaguil are {{Emotion Eater}}s, this means there are more people who make richer harvests, and they eventually become strong enough to overwhelm the hero and conquer the world anyway. |
| 70 | * In ''Animation/GuardianFairyMichel'', Salome often employs these, hanging onto hostages knowing that Kim would surrender if she threatened them, and using an attack to steal a fairy while the heroes are busy fighting it off. |
| 71 | * ''Anime/GundamBuildDiversReRise'' has its last battle deal with this trope. Team [=BUILD DiVERS=] want to stop Alus' attempts to eradicate the Eldoran people, but they don't want to kill him. Thus, they take the fight to him with the recently restored Masaki and Cuadorn aiding them. Once the team destroys Alus' KillSat, Masaki, almost cockily, tells Alus that the "people of Gunpla" will always find a way to stop him. Alus decides the best thing to do is invade GBN and get rid of these people. [[spoiler:When he gets there, a literal army of Divers are waiting for him and his army, Masaki and Cuadorn destroy Alus' base and the heroes are able to turn Alus into an EL-Diver by destroying his old form.]] |
| 72 | * Jinnai, the SmugSnake of ''Anime/ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld'', makes a bid for {{Magnificent Bastard}}y with this one: There's a ForgottenSuperweapon that could help his Bugrom allies win their war, but only the good-aligned Priestesses of Mt. Muldoon know where it's [[SealedEvilInACan hidden away]]. So he orders the Bugrom fleet to set sail. The heroes, thinking Jinnai knows where it is, panic and sail off with the priestesses leading the way... and Jinnai simply follows them to the right island. |
| 73 | * ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'': Guaiwaru comes up with a plan to become the new King Byo-gen that goes well for him. First, he opens up a portal to the Byo-gen Kingdom, then he leaves it open while the Cures enter and kill King Byo-gen. He quickly assumes power after that and manages to beat the Cures senseless for the next two episodes. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for him, King Byo-gen had OutGambitted him, as he reappears and absorbs Guaiwaru to regain his true form just as Guaiwaru is about to finish the Cures off.]] |
| 74 | * ''Literature/HeavyObject'': [[EcoTerrorist Bad Garage]] is planning to destroy Rome in a way that will expose the environmental damage done by Objects, so the 37th mobilizes to stop them. While Qwenthur and Havia stop them detonating an Object reactor under the city, [[spoiler:that was just Plan B. The actual plan was to trick the 37th into sending Baby Magnum to defend the city as its weight will destabilize the crust and cause a volcanic eruption]]. |
| 75 | * The Major pulled one against Alucard in ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}''. Recognizing Alucard's and his master's style, he fabricated an emergency by having several traitor vampires slaughter the entire population of a VTOL warship, and sent one of Millennium's core lieutenants there to apparently trap and kill Alucard when he was sent to deal with the situation. Instead, everybody in the ship was to be the trap to lock him in the destroyed warship when he inevitably slaughtered the entire squad, as vampires cannot cross water. While Alucard used his powers to psychically drag the damaged ship to the Thames, the Major's army had already slaughtered London and forced a Catholic-Protestant-vampire war in the burning city, making him too late to stop it. |
| 76 | ** It could even be argued that the whole plan of the Major involved one major Batman Gambit over fifty long and crazy years with the ultimate goal of [[spoiler:destroying Alucard]], hinging on expecting [[spoiler:Alucard first to release Level 0, then use up his familiars fighting Anderson, then fight Walter, forcing him to absorb every one of the dead while Warrant Officer Schrödinger, who has the power to be everywhere and nowhere, killed himself and threw himself into the sea of blood, thus 'poisoning' him by using all of his gathered souls against him]]. |
| 77 | * ''Manga/InitialD'': In their race down Mt. Akina, Ryosuke knows he likely can't beat Takumi on a course he's so familiar with, but he also knows that the newbie is probably not used to the psychological pressure of a real opponent yet. He attacks by mimicking Takumi's movements to keep their cars dangerously close together, hoping the pressure will cause him to slip up. It works, and he's able to take the lead, albeit temporarily. |
| 78 | * ''Literature/{{Inukami}}'': One episode featured the inukami plotting to take advantage of Keita's perverted tendencies, sure their plan would work immediately. Except he showed restraint, foiling their plan. |
| 79 | * After a demoralizing incident in ''Literature/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'', Mayumi orders the team's technician, Tatsuya, to go into their tent and comfort them. Tatsuya [[SociopathicHero doesn't know how to do that]], and he's scared that he might accidentally make them feel worse, so in the end he decides to just work as normal inside the tent and not mention the incident at all. This is exactly what Mayumi intended, [[StiffUpperLip because seeing someone who (they thought) was calm made the team calm down]]. |
| 80 | * The Manga One-shot story ''I Was Wrong'' centers around the ghost of a {{Yandere}} haunting her former boyfriend, who (accidentally) killed her when she started to get ''too'' possessive. As a ghost, she shows her former boyfriend that despite her possessive attitude, she really was just a sweet and normal girl, which fills the boyfriend with guilt. [[spoiler:The boyfriend eventually kills himself out of guilt, which is what the [[BitchInSheepsClothing girlfriend planned for all along]], so that the two of them could be TogetherInDeath]]. |
| 81 | * ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'': |
| 82 | ** In [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Part 2]], [[TheHero Joseph Joestar]] claims all of his fight strategies center around his ability to out-think his opponents. He traps and defeats the Pillar Man Santana by tricking him into falling down a well that [[WeakenedByTheLight reflects sunlight back onto him]], [[DrawAggro tricks Wamuu into chasing him to allow Speedwagon and Caesar to escape]], manages to outsmart Esidisi by deftly unraveling his own woolen cap to trap him in a Hamon web, and finally defeats Wamuu by tricking him into inhaling oil and flaming shreds of his own bandana. [[spoiler:In the end, he claims his final fight with [[BigBad Kars]] on top of a volcano has been a gambit all along, particularly after his own severed arm flies up to distract him and Kars is then pelted by rocks that toss him ''just'' out of the Earth's atmosphere, but Joseph's internal monologue shows he is scared and just lucky that he can trick Kars into thinking he had planned everything out from the start.]] |
| 83 | ** In [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Part 3]], while most of [[TheHero Jotaro]]'s fights throughout the arc have used his [[FightingSpirit Stand]] Star Platinum's [[LightningBruiser brute strength, sheer speed]], and [[SuperReflexes lightning-fast reflexes]] to win, he does use [[GeniusBruiser his wits]] in several occasions, such as against Rubber Soul and Enya. However, other times show more of his intelligence (as he does eventually get a doctorate in marine biology). |
| 84 | *** During the fight against Dark Blue Moon, Jotaro, who has been trying to smoke a cigarette throughout the boat trip, claims he can identify Stand users as a vein in their nose is irritated by tobacco smoke. Joseph, Kakyoin, Avdol, and the boat's Captain Tenille all check their noses, while the runaway girl Anne does not. Jotaro reveals he lied, knowing all of his friends and the real Stand user would check their noses, outing the boat's captain as an impostor and the user of Dark Blue Moon sent to kill them. |
| 85 | *** During the "fight" against Daniel J. D'Arby and Osiris, Jotaro knows he cannot out-cheat the seasoned gambler who has just stolen Polnareff and Joseph's souls, so he challenges the man to a game of poker. After displaying Star Platinum's precision in predicting the deal of cards and catching D'Arby trying to cheat him out of a good hand, he continues the act by apparently refusing to look at his cards dealt to him by a third party (who is actually in D'Arby's employ and has given Jotaro a bad hand). As D'Arby raises the bet over his soul and the souls of his comrades, Jotaro sees him and raises with his own soul, Avdol's soul, Kakyoin's soul, and the soul of his mother, as he uses Star Platinum to fetch himself a cigarette and a drink faster than D'Arby can see. This leads D'Arby to doubt his own hand and thinking that Jotaro has somehow managed to switch out all of his cards for an even better hand, leading to his own defeat by going catatonic and folding within his own mind. With Joseph and Polnareff saved, Avdol sees D'Arby had a four of a kind of kings, while Jotaro had a garbage hand. Jotaro reveals he was only able to keep his cool against D'Arby by having never looked at his own cards, knowing that if he had seen the bad hand, he would have lost in the battle of wits. |
| 86 | ** [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Part 4]]'s got the lot: |
| 87 | *** In Volume 1, [[StarterVillain Angelo]] has Josuke and Jotaro trapped in a house filling with steam, with rain pouring outside, and Angelo's Stand, Aqua Necklace, can move freely about in water and steam. As the steam fills the rooms of the house, Josuke uses his own Stand, Crazy Diamond, to bust through a wall into another room to escape the gathering steam, while having the hole seal itself after the two of them pass through it. However, [[OutOfTheFryingPan Angelo had placed a humidifier in this new room to blast steam in his face]], letting Aqua Necklace [[AttackTheMouth climb into Josuke's mouth]] and leaving him free to tear his body apart from the inside out. He even gleefully boasts that he knew that Josuke would break through the wall and stride into his trap, but Josuke [[DefiedTrope thwarts his plan]] by trapping Aqua Necklace in a latex glove that he had swallowed moments earlier, [[CrazyPrepared just in case it got into him]]. |
| 88 | *** Later, Josuke is met with Toshikazu Hazamada and his own Stand, Surface, a human-sized wooden doll which had turned itself into an EvilDoppelganger of Josuke. From a distance, Josuke throws a small shard of glass at Hazamada, which Surface catches. However, the shard turned out to be a piece of a glass bottle, and Josuke's Stand lets him restore anything that's been broken to its original state. Thus, he reforms the bottle around Surface's hand, destroying it and leaving it a wooden stump. |
| 89 | *** Red Hot Chili Pepper, a Stand that absorbs electricity and uses it to function, runs out of energy in his fight with [[DumbMuscle Okuyasu]]. As other characters approach to interrogate him, he asks Okuyasu why he believes that he's on his last legs, [[ParanoiaGambit suggesting that he could be faking his helplessness in order to catch Jotaro off guard and kill him]]. Okuyasu, unable to decide what to do, acts out of [[YouKilledMyFather his grudge for his brother's death]] and attacks, [[PortalCut erasing part of the ground]] and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero exposing a powerline underneath it, giving the weakened Stand enough energy to defeat Okuyasu and escape]]. The newly-invigorated electro-Stand also briefly monologues that if Okuyasu hadn't taken the bait, he would've completely run out of energy and died. |
| 90 | *** When Josuke tracks down Akira Otoishi, Red Hot Chili Pepper's User, at Morioh Port, he manages to trap the electro-Stand in a tire via reconstituting a busted one around him with Crazy Diamond, cutting off Red Hot Chili Pepper's power and leaving him to slowly die. Akira then gloats that his Stand can just punch through the tire's rubber with little trouble, which it then does. However, Akira then realizes that Josuke had also repaired the air ''inside'' of the tire, and since Red Hot Chili Pepper punched a hole to let that air out, the tire shoots off like a deflating balloon [[KillItWithWater and drops the electro-Stand into the harbor, critically wounding it]]. |
| 91 | ---->'''Josuke:''' You know, you'd have been better off if you didn't have the power to punch through the rubber. |
| 92 | *** When Josuke and Okuyasu fight Shigechi over a winning lottery ticket, he proves to be too much for the two of them, for as it turns out, [[MicrobotSwarm Shigechi's ability to summon hundreds of tiny Stands is pretty useful in combat]]. Okuyasu attempts to get him closer by saying that they give up and offering him some money to spare them, [[SubvertedTrope but Shigechi realizes that he's trying to trick him]]. [[DoubleSubversion However]], he already got close enough to Okuyasu to use the [[PortalCut space-erasing ability]] of his Stand, The Hand, to swipe the ticket right out of his hands. Josuke then rips the ticket up into hundreds of tiny pieces, ensuring that Shigechi won't be able to claim his prize without Josuke's [[HealingHands ability to restore things to their original state]], and scatters them to the wind. Shigechi immediately sends his hundreds of mini-Stands to reclaim the pieces, leaving himself completely defenseless against the duo. |
| 93 | *** When Shigechi first encounters [[BigBad Yoshikage Kira]] and his Stand, Killer Queen, Kira is about to explain that it has a secondary ability, but Shigechi interrupts this by using Harvest to swipe a 100-yen coin out of Killer Queen's hand. Kira then continues, saying that Killer Queen [[HavingABlast can turn anything that it touches into a bomb]], [[OhCrap such as the coin that Shigechi just nabbed from him]]. For added {{Irony}}, Shigechi tends to use Harvest primarily for hoarding low-value coins that were left scattered around town. |
| 94 | *** At one point, Rohan finds himself in the thrall of Cheap Trick, a piggybacking parasitic Stand that'll kill him if anybody sees his back, and not even Koichi's [[GravityMaster Echoes Act 3]] can pry it off. Rohan, feigning madness from being pestered by the piggybacking imp, then slowly turns around, asking if Koichi would like to get a better look at the Stand. Cheap Trick then turns around to face Koichi, planning on seizing him as a host after finishing off Rohan. Only then does he realize that the three of them are in the Ghost Alley, and he has just tripped [[DontLookBack the curse of the street]]. He's DraggedOffToHell by the spirit hands that reach out and nab him from Rohan's back, leaving Rohan a free man. |
| 95 | ** In [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Part 6]], Ermes pulls one [[spoiler:to defeat Sports Maxx for good. Having successfully killed him once before, his Stand's powers allowed him to be revived as a zombie and to also raise a zombie army. If that weren't enough, Sports and all his new troops are invisible, too. So Ermes leaves herself open to be attacked, counting on Sports Maxx wanting to finish her off personally. The moment he bites her head, Ermes puts a sticker on her head to make a copy of it with her brains still intact. When he removes the sticker, the chunk of her head he swallowed bursts from his chest and returns to her head, the resulting blood splatter letting her know exactly where he is.]] |
| 96 | ** In [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun Part 7]], Gyro fights against Ringo Roadagain, who can [[TimeMaster rewind time six seconds]] by turning a hand on his wristwatch. Gyro announces that he will strike an old wound in his collarbone, paralyzing the left side of his body, which would make him unable to use the watch and kill him, by stopping his heart. He manages to do just that, but Ringo still finds a way to turn back time... which is exactly what Gyro wanted him to do. He correctly guesses that the second time around Ringo will try to protect himself with his left hand, which will throw off his aim, making him miss Gyro's heart. He also anticipates that Ringo will try to kill him with a second shot, used the previous six seconds to memorize the exact time when a large piece of wood will fall from the ceiling, and aims his attack at it, sending it through Ringo's hand and into his collarbone, foiling his attempt to defend himself. |
| 97 | *** Another example from Part 7 is the final battle and main antagonist [[spoiler: Funny Valentine]]. After striking him with the infinite rotation, [[spoiler: Funny]] begs Johnny to spare him, in exchange for giving Johnny another version of the recently deceased [[spoiler: Gyro]]. Johnny, while wanting to believe in his words, gives him a final test. He tosses a gun to [[spoiler: Valentine]], and correctly deduces that all of his pretty sounding rhetoric, his honor, and flowery showing off regarding his patriotism is all lies, that in reality he is obsessed with power and greed and will be as underhanded as to shoot him the moment his guard is lowered. Sure enough, Johnny is correct, and finally finishes the man off as he reaches for a second gun. |
| 98 | * A pretty brilliant example from ''Anime/KillLaKill'', courtesy of [[AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil Satsuki Kiryuin]]. Fed up with club presidents springing up left, right and centre, hoping to defeat her and gain Three-Star status, Ryuko forms a Fight Club to systematically take them all on, with [[CloudCuckooLander Mako]] as club president so she'll get the privileges that come with the position. Much to [[TheDragon the Elite Four's]] surprise, Satsuki approves the club's formation... [[spoiler: because she knows that once Mako's family have had a taste of luxury, they'll want more and more, constantly pushing Ryuko to fight more club presidents to further improve their reputation and situation. Ryuko grows tired and, with the family constantly going off and doing their own thing, lonely ...again, just as Satsuki predicted.]] Eventually, Ryuko disbands the club, [[spoiler: but not without having to fight a [[WhatYouAreInTheDark greed-ridden]], [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman Two-Star-Uniform-wearing]] Mako, and [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan snap her out of it]] using ThePowerOfFriendship.]] To top it all off, [[spoiler: this even crosses into XanatosGambit; since the Fight Club pretty much wiped out all the "unworthy" club presidents, Satsuki can now elect new, better ones in their places.]] |
| 99 | ** [[spoiler: Since Satsuki's plan all along is to build a teen army to defeat her evil mother who wants to use mind-controlling clothes to take over the world (ItMakesSenseInContext), discovering that Mako possesses unusual amounts of power adds yet another bonus to this plan, as she ends up donning the Fight Club uniform again and fighting against Ragyo a lot later in the show.]] |
| 100 | * Hajime in ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'' does this a lot in order to corner a suspect or find out details that would normally be overlooked including but not limited to: rigging watches, lying about lost items and faking deaths. |
| 101 | * In ''Literature/{{Kurenai}}'', the protagonist Benika pulls off such a gambit with her "kidnapping" of Murasaki Kuhouin. Although she assigned Shinkurou as a bodyguard to protect Murasaki from being recaptured by her own [[BigScrewedUpFamily (very messed up)]] family, she never expected to keep her safe from them forever. Instead, her plan was to "poison the prize": by letting Murasaki experience enough of the outside world while living with Shinkurou, she would hopefully return to the Kuhouin family with the knowledge and willpower to bring down the family's traditions from the inside. |
| 102 | * In ''Manga/KurokosBasketball'' near the end of the final quarter of the Seirin vs Shutoku match, Midorima was about to make a 3-point shot, but believed that Kagami would be able to jump and block his shot once more despite being completely exhausted. So in response he feinted and didn't shoot when Kagami thought he would. Unfortunately for him Kuroko also believed that Kagami would jump and that Midorima would feint so he was able to steal the ball just before the final quarter ended. |
| 103 | * Akiyama Shinichi of ''Manga/LiarGame'' uses this trope pretty much continuously. I mean, just look at the way he plays on Fujisawa's anxiety in the first round through constant surveillance, panicking Fujisawa enough for him to believe that [[spoiler:Akiyama was the LGT representative arriving to collect the 100 million yen. Yes, Fujiyama ''handed his money to his opponent'' after guarding it so intensely for 30 days.]] |
| 104 | ** Nao eventually becomes adept at this, at well. At the end of the Contraband Game, she responds to Yokoya's BreakingSpeech by stating that not only did he fail to dominate them as fully as he wished (a big blow to his pride), but that she and Akiyama still have a way to save the people who have been screwed over so far. Of course, said plan depends on Yokoya continuing to the next round, instead of dropping out and taking half of his winnings with him...and now he's got enough of a grudge against the two of them to do just that. Later, she's able to manipulate Fukunaga during the second Revival Round by planning around her immense greed and [[spoiler: crush on Akiyama]], which keep her in the game and on their side |
| 105 | * ''Anime/LupinFamilyAllStars'': The whole trap is one on behalf of Zenigata and the gang falls for it perfectly. They'd've been fine if they had just ignored the suspicious invitations. So it was silly of him really to not only let Lupin get re-dressed, but also not search him for explosive contraband on an island made of explosives... |
| 106 | * In ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'', the heroes pull one of these to prevent the villains from getting a MacGuffin ([[spoiler:by taking it out of its suitcase and hiding it under Caro's hat]]). |
| 107 | * ''Anime/MazingerZ'': Kouji Kabuto from ''Anime/MazingerZ'' used several throughout the ''[[Anime/GreatMazinger whole]]'' ''[[Anime/UFORoboGrendizer trilogy]]'', manipulating his enemies to make right what he wanted, often mixing them with CrazyEnoughToWork. For example, in one chapter a Mechanical Beast -- Kirma K5 -- sliced a chunk of one Mazinger-Z's wing during an aerial battle. Kouji could not balance his HumongousMecha and he fell towards the ground. Then he ''goaded'' Kirma into attacking him again, and positioned Mazinger so his foe's SinisterScythe sliced a chunk of the another wing. Now the Mazinger wings were the same length again, and his enemy was nearby, he could balance Mazinger back and grab Kirma. As he was beating the crap out of the {{Robeast}} he gloated it should have let him drop. |
| 108 | ** Prof. Yumi -- and later ''[[Anime/GreatMazinger Prof. Kenzo Kabuto]]'' -- also used the BatmanGambit fairly often. |
| 109 | * ''Manga/MedakaBox'': |
| 110 | ** Ajimu Najimi believed that if she were to fight Kurokami Medaka directly, she would just become a "Last Boss" that would lose to the "Main Character", so she sets about fighting her indirectly with this trope. Her first step is to sneak her human "terminals" among the candidates for the training program to create Medaka's Student Council's successors, five of them surviving Kumagawa Misogi's "Cruel Selection". But not one of these middle schoolers had any Abnormality or Minus at all; they were "normal" girls (at least, normal by the standards of this story's setting), and surprisingly, they wound up genuinely forming relationships with and proving their qualities to the members of the Student Council. Eventually, Najimi's true intentions with this move came to light; [[spoiler:by introducing more Normals for Medaka to observe so closely as so-called "enemies", Medaka was made to question her attachment to her decidedly normal childhood friend Hitoyoshi Zenkichi. Her own Abnormality compelling her to observe this as a "problem" to solve and her habit of relating more to her enemies than her actual friends created a disturbing gap between these two people. Then, when Zenkichi was apparently left behind by Medaka, Najimi swooped in for the next phase of her plan to defeat Medaka; namely, as she put it, turn Zenkichi himself into a "Main Character".]] |
| 111 | * Aeolia Schenberg's feats in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' are oft barely noticed. In spite of living 200 years before the events of the anime, he managed to lay down a framework for Celestial Being and created an A.I. that would be able to create missions and postulate possible strategies for the group to carry out. Not only that, he theorized and developed technologies that were to come to be centuries beyond his time, including the Twin Drive for the Gundam 00 (and the solar furnaces themselves for that matter) and the orbital elevators. Although he planned to go into cryogenic sleep and wake up in the future, he also ''planned for his death''. He made sure that if he was ever killed, the Trans-Am system would be activated in all Gundams, as well as making other information stored outside of Veda accessible (like the aforementioned Twin Drive). Aeolia's surprise 200-year-old plans often manage to foil Ribbons's, the resident MagnificentBastard, own machinations, to which he frequently expresses frustration at. After all, he thought [[WellIntentionedExtremist he was just carrying out Aeolia's wishes too]]. |
| 112 | ** Federation soldier Hank Hercules initiates a coup de'tat and seizes control of the Africa Tower elevator's low orbital station, counting on a lethal response from the A-LAWS that will illuminate the citizens into their brutal ways. However, the A-LAWS use the incident to facilitate their own Gambit, using their information control to frame the mutineers for the A-LAWS' ruthless attack on the citizens and the destruction of the tower itself, all to completely discredit the mutineers and their anti-government allies, while giving the A-LAWS a pretext to consolidate the full might of the Federation army under their banner. |
| 113 | *** Though this turns out to have fatal consequences later on, as some of the more important members of A-LAWS make a HeelFaceTurn in response. |
| 114 | * Flit Asuno does a little, but decisive one in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE''. In the final battle, he realizes that the Vagans are desperately recharging their WaveMotionGun in an attempt to take down both the Diva and the Gundams. Because of it, Zeheart only manages to destroy is an empty Diva and no Gundams at all at the cost of his loyal dragons, much to his ultimate despair. |
| 115 | * In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'', Rau Le Crueset's plan to kill everyone hinges on a few Batman Gambits towards the Earth Alliance, namely revealing Operation Spitfire and sending out Flay with the N-Jammer Canceller plans. As expected, Blue Cosmos came out and armed themselves with nukes with Patrick Zala hauling out GENESIS to fight back. |
| 116 | * Gilbert Durandal of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'''s hard to tell if most of the stuff he initiated or was something done by other parties and he ran with it. Either way, he came dangerously close to succeeding in initiating his Destiny Plan... if only [[SpannerInTheWorks he didn't try to kill Lacus.]] Learning that Djibril was in Orb and orders ZAFT to go after the terrorist, he knew Shinn Asuka wouldn't go after Djibril, but rather try to destroy ORB. He was counting on it; however, Kira and Athrun showed up with their new Gundams and stopped Shinn. |
| 117 | ** There's also what Cagalli did to regain control of ORB, getting a desperate Rona Yuma Seiran return control of her country, then proceeding to get him arrested for treason -- getting ORB involved in this war in the first place and making everyone think Cagalli had turned traitor. |
| 118 | * In ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'', Maria Louise ''tries'' to pull one of these. As Maria Louise wants to be rescued by George, who she sees as her KnightInShiningArmor, she sets about to trick George into thinking Domon kidnapped her, ultimately wrangling the Neo Japan fighter in her plan to get a fight with George (Domon tried to earlier, but seeing as he dropped in on George's fight with Neo Cuba's Gundam, George got pissed off and ran off, pulling an HonorBeforeReason schtick). The plan backfires as George had figured out what Maria was doing almost instantly and tells her off for her stunt. |
| 119 | * ''Anime/TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold'': Ambrosius blackmails Esteban into retrieving and handing the third City of Gold's artifact over to him, in exchange for his father's freedom. Esteban fulfills his part of the bargain, but Ambrosius refuses to release Esteban's father and demands more artifacts before leaving... just as Esteban expected. Since the artifact -- a pearl -- can actually be used as a homing beacon, the gang track an unsuspecting Ambrosius back to India. |
| 120 | * Shikamaru Nara from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' won most of his early major battles by using Batman Gambits to manipulate his opponents into just the right spot such that he can either [[ShadowPin catch their shadows]] or force them to harm themselves through use of this otherwise harmless technique. |
| 121 | ** Deidara also pulls one to capture Gaara: he realizes the sand Gaara is attacking with is the one he has the most control over, so when Gaara rips Deidara's arm off he has the living clay inside said arm crawl inside this sand. He then sends a huge bomb towards the Sand Village so Gaara has to send most of his sand to withhold the blast, forcing Gaara to block his next attack with his best sand, has the clay he left inside that sand crawling into the center of Gaara's sand sheld, then detonates them. |
| 122 | * A meta-example in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' would be author Creator/KenAkamatsu's plot to essentially write an [[RuleOfCool over the top]] {{Shounen}} action series when his publishers ''wanted'' a HaremSeries by [[HiddenDepths hiding the action-y]] elements. |
| 123 | ** A common AlternateCharacterInterpretation theorizes that [[TheTease Konoka]] is operating one. By alternately giving and withholding affection from Setsuna, she forces Setsuna to accept her [[InsecureLoveInterest repressed romantic feelings]] towards Konoka and get over her self-esteem issues (which would otherwise poison their relationship). The canonicity of this idea is debatable, although after the above events happen, Konoka reveals that she was hoping for this outcome. |
| 124 | * ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Gendo Ikari had an elaborate BatmanGambit in motion, manipulating people throughout the entire series to react in ways he expected and behave right like he wanted or needed. However, the success of his plan completely hinged on everybody acting like he had foreseen, so when his most important pawn refused to do what he wanted, his plan is completely ruined. |
| 125 | * The heroes pull this off when Captain Misamaru of ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' successfully predicts the actions of the Jovians and herds their superweapon into a trap, by continually convincing them the trap is elsewhere. |
| 126 | * In ''Manga/OnePiece'', [[spoiler: Blackbeard successfully defeats and captures Ace and hands him over to the Marines, earning him the title of Warlord of the Sea]]. Knowing [[spoiler:Whitebeard's familial protectiveness,]] [[DisasterDominoes a chain of events]] would led up to [[spoiler: a war between the Whitebeard Pirates and the Marines at Marineford, which gave him a clear opening to break into Impel Down and recruit the most dangerous and powerful prisoners into his crew]]. |
| 127 | ** But the gambit doesn't stop there; after that part's success, [[spoiler:he takes his crew to Marineford, where he knew Whitebeard would have been worn down from taking on the World Government's full force. He then has his entire crew attack Whitebeard, finally killing him, and then proceeds to steal the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit from him. And as if his threat level wasn't already high enough with that move, he then proceeds to usurp Whitebeard's territories and titles, both that of the Strongest Man in the World and that of one of the Four Emperors]]. The bottom line? A monster pulled off a successful Batman Gambit, and has officially become the series' BigBad. |
| 128 | ** Donquixote Doflamingo has a penchant for this, which fits his [[PeoplePuppets puppetmaster powers]]. His entire plan to [[spoiler:take over Dressrosa]] relied on the fact that the king would try to collect the money that Doflamingo demanded from him, instead of trying to fight back. The king, being the pacifist, obliged, which allowed Doflamingo [[spoiler:to demonize him in the eyes of his subjects and pose as as a saviour of people, after when he took over the country.]] Later, knowing that Luffy allied with Law, he starts a big gladiatorial competition [[spoiler:with [[PlayingWithFire the Mera-Mera fruit]] as a prize]], correctly guessing that Luffy would enter the competition [[spoiler: out of feelings for his brother]] and thus walk directly into his trap. He does this again when Luffy and Law make it to his castle -- this time he makes Bellamy fight Luffy, correctly guessing that even after he sent Dellinger to kill Bellamy, beaten him to near death and used him as a HumanShield, he would still fight Luffy out of his pride, while Luffy would hesitate to fight someone in his condition. |
| 129 | ** In a somewhat heroic example, the post-timeskip Straw Hats themselves usually make plans with the event of [[LeeroyJenkins Luffy]] inevitably derailing their first plan in mind, counting on the fact that when he goes off the rails he will automatically [[WeNeedADistraction cause a massive distraction]], allowing the remaining Straw Hats to accomplish their goals. |
| 130 | * In the end of ''[[Manga/TouhouSangetsusei Oriental Sacred Place]]'', the three fairies make a plan to create an incident that Reimu will solve and beat them, so they can [[DefeatMeansFriendship become her friends]]. [[spoiler:It works.]] |
| 131 | * ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' has its DarkestHour as a result of this: Tamaki's EvilMatriarch grandmother is using such gambits to separate him and Haruhi, thus revealing herself to be the series' true villain. [[spoiler:At least, until Tamaki's dad relieves her of the post]]. |
| 132 | * ''Anime/PatlaborTheTVSeries'': Nagumo gets rid of the SRX-70, and more importantly, the corporate maintenance crew trying to steal its operational data for use in weapons development, by telling the chief that she'll only accept it as a permanent piece of equipment if the trigger-happy Ohta is transferred to Division 1 and made its pilot. The chief returns the Labor rather than risk what might happen if Ohta gets his hands on the SRX-70's 42mm autocannon. |
| 133 | * ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': During Ash's Full Battle with Paul in ''Petal to the Mettle!'' and ''Evolving Strategies!'', Paul does this throughout the battle such as having Torterra use Frenzy Plant to lock it in place and after Gliscor hits the Continent Pokémon with Fire Fang, X-Scissor and Steel Wing, Torterra recharges and grabs Gliscor's tail with Crunch, allowing Torterra to use Giga Drain. While Gliscor does free itself with Fire Fang on the vines, it's left very weakened. Paul tries these again during the Lily of the Valley rematch, but Ash and his team have gotten wise after their devastating defeat (Ash only beat Weavile with Staraptor and Ursaring with Chimchar during the Lake Aucity match) and Ash foils these by switching out his Pokémon. He beats Aggron (Pikachu's counter) with Infernape, Gastrodon (Staraptor's counter) with Buizel, Ninjask (Gliscor's counter) with Infernape, Frosslass with Pikachu (the Mouse Pokémon's second counter), Drapion with Gliscor and Electivire with Infernape after the latter activates Blaze. Paul does claim he was using Aggron and Gastrodon to "figure out" Ash's strategy which lets his Drapion beat Buizel, Staraptor and Torterra, but considering this followed by the aformentioned "Ash foils Paul's counters" thing mentioned, it comes across as IMeantToDoThat, and allows Pikachu, Infernape and Gliscor, the three who got the most focus and growth, to show off. |
| 134 | * In ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'', Fantina has a pretty good one set up as her Gym gimmick. First, the challenger has to solve some difficult but straight forward math questions to reach her, forcing the challenger to adapt a logical way of thinking. When the challenger actually reaches her, her Pokemon's illusions kick in, totally destroying all that built up logic and with it the trainer's brain. If a less logical person were to reach her (presumably just by defeating all the Gym Trainers instead of answering the questions), he would just be caught up in the illusion and not realize he's getting the crap beaten out of him. Pearl is able to thwart this and set up his own by encouraging Plantinum and Lax to have fun which gets Fantina mad enough to order her Mismagius to attack which allows Lax to use Fling and Mismagius gets KO'd via Iron Ball to the head. |
| 135 | * In ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'', BadassBookworm Sadaharu Inui is having his ass kicked in the courts by another Badass Bookworm, his former partner Renji Yanagi, who is as good as using info as Inui himself is. Then, Inui claims he won't use his data anymore... [[spoiler: and it turns out this was fake, since he lulled Renji into a false sense of security and shaped their game into a copy of their last unfinished match. With this in mind, Inui ultimately wins]]. |
| 136 | ** In general, several of the tennis games in the series use these Gambits as part of the strategy. Examples are Fuji Shuusuke ([[spoiler:who let his brother's team manager from Saint Rudolph almost beat him, only to come back with a vengeance and CRUSH him as punishment for mistreating Yuuta]]) and Kawamura Takashi ([[spoiler:who used on purpose two variations of the Hadokyuu to weaken Kabaji in the Hyoutei arc and force him into a draw]]) from Seigaku, as well as Masaharu Niou of Rikkaidai [[spoiler:who ''[[MasterOfDisguise switched places with his partner Hiroshi Yagyuu]]'' for half a game to trick both teammates and rivals into believing one was the other, confusing Eiji and Oishi and defeating them]]. |
| 137 | * Several characters in ''Manga/PrisonSchool'' are manipulative enough to invoke this (namely Kiyoshi, Gakuto, Mari, and Kate). Mari attempts to get the boys expelled by pulling off a series of plans to trick the boys into breaking school rules, [[spoiler: but Kiyoshi manages to counter this through gambits of his own]]. |
| 138 | * The escape in part one of ''Manga/ThePromisedNeverland''. Norman comes up with a plan based around how he believes Isabella, Emma and Ray will act during the two months [[spoiler: after his shipment. Notably, part of the plan involves Ray and Emma doing absolutely NOTHING for those two months.]] Therefore after the two months, [[spoiler: when Ray finally decides to do something, Norman also predicted what action he's going to commit, turning Ray's move into an absolutely genius advantage for the escapees]]. |
| 139 | * Episode 9 of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' has a spectacular one pulled by Kyubey on [[AntiHero Kyoko]] and [[DarkMagicalGirl Homura]]. Anticipating that Kyoko's re-emerging heroic tendencies will lead her to try and [[spoiler: change Sayaka back from witch form]], he vaguely implies that Madoka could use ThePowerOfFriendship to do so (and of course, Kyoko would need to accompany her for protection). [[spoiler: Of course, it was an impossible prospect from the start, and not only does Kyoko pull a HeroicSacrifice to defeat the witch and save Madoka, but it leaves Homura with no other Puella Magi to help her battle the upcoming Walpurgisnacht -- which practically forces the incredibly self-sacrificing Madoka to [[DealWithTheDevil make a contract]], guaranteeing her transformation into a witch that will destroy the world and provide Kyuubey with endless amounts of energy.]] |
| 140 | ** It [[spoiler:backfires spectacularly in the final episode, when Madoka ''pulls a gambit of her own'' against him. While Madoka does indeed make a contract with Kyubey, the terms of said contract are that ''witches never exist in the first place''. The end result? Madoka [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence becomes a Magical Girl goddess]] and changes the universe so that Kyubey has to rely on a much less efficient form of energy, along with altering the little bastard's memory so that he doesn't even know what a "witch" is. Oh, and she binds it to the new system so he won't be evil anymore. Ironically, his ultimate plan fails because of ''another'' HeroicSacrifice -- one he did not expect.]] |
| 141 | ** Word of God says Kyubey was never evil in the first place. Just completely logical. On top of that, Kyubey didn't say anything about Madoka being able to save Sayaka through friendship. Kyoko asked Kyubey if there was a way to save Sayaka from being a witch, and it states that if there were, then it hadn't heard of it. Madoka then proceeds to create a balanced system wherein everyone has the maximum amount of happiness that they could have while being in that system. |
| 142 | * Though he frequently makes use of the IndyPloy to succeed, the titular character of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' is not averse to a good BatmanGambit, particularly in the manga. Though they do usually fail and force him to revert to IndyPloy, that's because Ranma Saotome's "friends" and enemies are extremely unpredictable, and so prone to reacting in ways other then what he expected. The best example would be the first [[EmbarrassingFirstName Pantyhose Taro]] story, where he sets up an elaborate plan intended to convince DirtyOldMan and JerkAss [[OldMaster Happosai]] to rename Taro by giving him a faked dream sequence in which Happosai sees a future in which Taro has, due to his name, become a terrible PantyThief, and is then sent back to the day he named Taro. Ranma expects Happosai to choose to give Taro a new name. Instead, Happosai proves his evil credentials by promptly trying to murder what he thinks is baby Taro with his bomb attacks. |
| 143 | * In ''Manga/Reborn2004'', [[spoiler:Tsuna, or at least his future self from ten year's time, pulls this off to the exteme in order to save multiple universes from the arc's {{BigBad}} Byakuran. But mainly for training himself and his family up.]] |
| 144 | * ''Literature/RebuildWorld'': Below are major spoilers from late in the Web Novels. |
| 145 | ** [[spoiler:After Sheryl ensnares TheRival Katsuya in a HoneyTrap and gives information on him to Akira, including about his ChronicHeroSyndrome and SurvivorGuilt, her doing so ends up resulting in an explosive LoveTriangle due to the [[ManipulativeBastard manipulations of Viola and Inabe.]] When Katsuya is trying to kill Akira as part of a FreakOut, and Akira is cornered, using the info he got from Sheryl, he concocts a plan: Send [[SpinAttack his gun spinning through the air]] on an automated firing pattern, shooting everyone in the room [[DeliberateInjuryGambit including himself]], to make Katsuya worry about his team. When Akira throws his second gun, Katsuya shoots at it to protect them, allowing Akira to cut Katsuya into HalfTheManHeUsedToBe.]] |
| 146 | ** Reina eventually reveals her talent as a GuileHero setting up one of these. [[spoiler:When dealing with a MacGuffin white card, its MacGuffinGuardian Olivia threatens Shiori with death if she’d threatened Akira for it or even underpayed him. So when Reina’s political rival Chloe threatens her with dozens of servants to give it up, Reina makes sure that Chloe threatens her as much as possible before giving in as she planned, hoping Olivia would kill Chloe in retaliation. Unfortunately, Olivia was in on [[TheConspiracy Alice's conspiracy]], causing her to only warn Chloe, and so Akira ends up getting dragged into the mess.]] |
| 147 | * In ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', most of [[SmugSnake Touga]] [[spoiler: (and by [[TheManBehindTheMan extension]], [[BigBad Akio]])]] and [[ManipulativeBastard Mikage's]] plans to obtain the Rose Bride rely on these. In particular, there's Episode 11 (counting on the fact that Utena would prioritize her feelings for Dios over her desire to emulate him, costing her the duel), ''all'' of the Black Rose Duelist arc (Mikage sets up emotional catastrophes in the lives of students so they'll enter his seminar), and Episode 38 (which relied on [[spoiler: Utena prioritizing Anthy over Akio... not only setting her up for a stab in the back, but cementing her as a prince who can be used to open the Rose Gate.)]] |
| 148 | * ''Manga/TheRideOnKing'': Dealing with General Calhoon involves a lot of psychological trickery. First, Purchinov twice sneaks into his tent without attacking him, then bests him in a duel, then Garutz comes and offers his head, all while Edu is turning it into a show for soldiers. Calhoon has enough of his pride shaken that he doesn't feel like doing his job. |
| 149 | * In ''Anime/SailorMoon'', Jadeite unleashes an army of Clayface-like humanoid phony cops on an airport, knowing that the Sailor Senshi would transform to stop the phonies. To his satisfaction, Usagi, Ami and Rei are the ones who react accordingly, and if Queen Beryl hadn't [[DeathBySecretIdentity dismissed his finding out who the Sailor Senshi were as an excuse for his latest failure]], a lot of innocent bystanders, including their loved ones, would've been in grave danger. |
| 150 | * In ''Manga/SchoolMermaid'', the one pulling the strings is [[spoiler: Haruko, who deliberately brought the unconfident, nonathletic Yoshiko to hunt mermaids while ensuring she wouldn't find out the consequences of failure until [[RaceAgainstTheClock it was too late]]: being transformed into a mermaid herself. Turns out she needed a mermaid whose name started with the same letter in order to make her crush fall under its spell... Guess who qualifies.]] |
| 151 | * In ''Literature/{{Shiki}}'', resident badass and vampire expert Toshio Ozaki [[spoiler:pulls one of these on Chizuru, "matriarch" of the vampiric Kirishiki family. Among their many vampire powers is the power of suggestion: the first vampire to bite a victim can instruct that victim to do anything. Up until this point, the vamps have used this power to prevent their victims from seeking medical attention from Ozaki, who is the only doctor in the village. But because Ozaki, who experimented on his vampire wife, now knows all their weaknesses and is a real threat, Chizuru bites him and implants the suggestion that he burn all his notes regarding the vampires and their connection to the deaths in Sotoba. Ozaki carries out her wishes the next day. Later, Chizuru notices the Kagura Festival and expresses interest in it, but can't go due to the religious symbolism. Ozaki convinces her to go anyway, assuring her that if she changes her mind, they can go back. Chizuru agrees, but starts to chicken out when they get too deep into the festival. She orders Ozaki to escort her back to the clinic, but he refuses and reveals a second set of bite marks in a place that Chizuru never bit him. Chizuru was actually the *second* vampire to bite Ozaki, the first being Natsuno, who is working with Ozaki to take down the other vampires. Ozaki went along with Chizuru's wishes to gain her trust, lure her to the festival, and then reveal her as a vampire to the rest of the villagers.]] It totally works. |
| 152 | * Xellos does this all the time in ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'', which is not particularly difficult, as everyone in that series is extremely predictable. Usually, whatever he does serves his [[ThePlan plans]] in some way, but a lot of the time he just manipulates them because he thinks it's funny. It generally is... |
| 153 | * In ''Manga/SnowWhiteWithTheRedHair'' Izana's plot to deal with the troublesome feuding earls from Lido and Sui involved declaring he wanted a castle in between their lands, causing the two of them to go out of their way trying to win his favor and spending far more money than they could afford while paying for building his castle. After they beggared themselves and ruined what reputation they had left among their people, he stripped them of their titles and land and replaced them with their retainers whose pleas and attempts to get Izana to step in to defuse the situation had proven to Izana they'd do a better job than their former masters even though he'd feigned disinterest when they'd been talking with him. |
| 154 | * ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'': Katsuhito Masaki is the main reason that Tenchi netted so many beautiful alien women. Just that it worked a little ''too'' well -- he got Tenchi to be curious enough about the mysterious cave that he would be able to go in and investigate, freeing Ryoko, which would catch Ayeka's attention (which he figured would happen) and bring her to Earth so that he could send Tenchi back in his place. Nothing in his plans, however, would prepare him for the other four girls who would show up. |
| 155 | * Kotetsu pulls off a good one in Episode 13 of ''Anime/TigerAndBunny'' to get around [[spoiler:Jake's mind reading powers.]] Since he's a bit of an IdiotHero, it even fools the ''audience'' at first. |
| 156 | * In ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'', Vash wins most of his battles by quickly and carefully studying his opponent's personality and mannerisms to predict how the opponent will act and move. |
| 157 | * Fei Wang Reed and Yuuko in ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' do nothing but to try to out-Batman each other. Spoiler: [[spoiler: Yuuko wins.]] |
| 158 | ** The overarching plot of looking for the feathers turns out to be [[spoiler: Fei Wang Reed scattering them and counting on the fact that this will make the group travel universes to find them, thereby supplying him with what he wants: [[ApocalypseMaiden Sakura's body]] imprinted with the physical memories of different worlds. He even goes so far as to set up the lives of all companions involved so that they will serve the purposes he wants them to, all while he sits in his tackily decorated room and goes [[TheChessmaster "Dance, puppets, dance!"]].]] |
| 159 | ** However, like any true villainous plot, [[spoiler: it backfires spectacularly since he doesn't count on ThePowerOfFriendship, ThePowerOfLove, not to mention that it depends on giving one of his opponents [[TheOmnipotent phenomenal cosmic powers]]. Which is of course part of ''Yuuko's'' Batman Gambit. She simply lets Fei Wang Reed put his plan into action, relying on him to make the Sakuras [[PersonOfMassDestruction incredibly powerful]], and then making sure through a SelfSacrificeScheme that they have an opportunity to turn that power against him. There's quite a ShellGame going on with Sakura-bodies and Sakura-souls at that point.]] |
| 160 | ** Oh, and once that happens, it turns out that [[spoiler: manipulating people's pasts to make them do what you want doesn't make people very kindly inclined towards you, and that part of Fei Wang Reeds gambit backfires too as [[YouKilledMyFather Kurogane]] and [[AngstySurvivingTwin Fai]] deal the finishing blow.]] |
| 161 | * ''Anime/{{Windaria}}'': Lagado turns Alan into his UnwittingPawn by exploiting his desire to protect [[{{Arcadia}} The Valley]]. If Alan said 'We're moving' instead, the plan would have collapsed then and there. |
| 162 | * ''Manga/VampireKnight'': Kaname is a frequent user of this trope, especially concerning Zero during the first arc. |
| 163 | * Keima Katsuragi of ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'' enacts these regularly, thanks in no small part to his intelligence, using his knowledge to capture runaway spirits, goddesses and subversive demons. [[spoiler:Later, he had Fiore out herself as Vintage's agent and recaptured her several chapters later after she gets away from Haqua and Nora.]] |
| 164 | * ''Manga/WorldsEndHaremFantasia'': Main character Lord Arc's father, the Count of Nargala, falls severely ill after eating fruit tainted with miasma, leaving Arc as acting count. His EvilUncle Lord Tute plots a [[TheCoup coup d'etat]] with the aid of his assistant Tia, who promises to "serve" him (it's clear she means [[TheMistress sexually]]) once he becomes head of the Nargala family. [[spoiler:Except for his father's poisoning, the whole thing is a trap set by Arc himself to consolidate power: Tia is a HoneyTrap whom Arc [[IOweYouMyLife rescued from child prostitution and paid to educate]] years earlier, and encouraged the coup to get potentially rebellious Nargala vassals to incriminate themselves--and as she said, [[ExactWords "I serve the head of the Nargala family."]] After retaking the castle with his allies, Arc summarily beheads Tute for treason.]] |
| 165 | * ''Manga/YawaraAFashionableJudoGirl'': Jigorou has proven to be quite good at these especially when it comes to manipulating his granddaughter Yawara. |
| 166 | * ''Anime/YuGiOh'': |
| 167 | ** Seto Kaiba used a plan like this early in his life to seize control of [=KaibaCorp=] from his tyrannical stepfather. He and his brother were given 2% each of the company's shares as a birthday present, and after Seto passed Gozaburo's test to keep it, he conspired with the Big Five to take over the company by owning the majority of the shares. At one point, someone leaked his plan to Gozaburo. Seto accused Mokuba of doing so, and after a heated argument, Mokuba sought protection with their stepfather. This caused Gozaburo to stop buying shares of the company once he hit 49% because he was certain that Mokuba's shares would tip the scales in his favor. But Mokuba chose to side with his brother instead, and Seto's plan succeeded. Years later, Gozaburo's former right-hand man Kogoro Daimon (Leichter in the dub) suggests a more elaborate scheme on Seto's part. Daimon claimed that the ''true'' leak was Seto himself, and he falsely accused Mokuba in order to lure Gozaburo into a false sense of security, because he knew that A: with 51% in his possession, Gozaburo would allow Seto to claim the remaining 49% without resistance; and B: even with such mistreatment, Mokuba would remain loyal to him. And Seto only denies this in the English dub. |
| 168 | ** Both Marik and Dark Bakura tend to operate this way. One notable example is Dark Bakura's duel with Yami during the Battle City finals. When Yami secures certain victory by playing his god card, Marik's gambit to release Bakura from Dark Bakura's control, and thus force Yami to lose the duel in order to protect his critically ill friend's life, has two flaws in it. The first is that Marik didn't expect Dark Bakura to protect Bakura by re-possessing him, not willing to risk his host's life. The second—which everyone seems to overlook—is that Yami could simply ask Bakura to forfeit the duel. |
| 169 | ** For that matter, most of the card game duels played in this series operate on Batman Gambits. Duelists continually bluff and trick their opponents into helping them set up an elaborate ploy that will secure them certain victory, ''unless'' their opponent then spots the tiny but fatal flaw, or just draws the right card out of dumb luck. |
| 170 | ** One of the reasons that Yami Yugi is never really beaten is because he always seems to remain two steps ahead of his opponents... even when they are two steps ahead of him. For the matter, one can probably rename it "Yami Yugi Syndrome". |
| 171 | ** In fact, Raphael, the only duelist on the show who can claim to have defeated him fairly (except Yugi himself, in the finale), did so by using a BatmanGambit of his own. During their duel, Raphael played a card that left Yami the one with [[ArtifactOfDoom the Seal of Orichalcos]]. So long as that card isn't played, no one risks their soul, so it was just an everyday duel. But Raphael's strategy was so sound, Yami was guaranteed to lose in his next turn. Betting on Yami's {{Pride}} as "the undefeated king of games", he played the Seal of Orichalcos himself, corrupting his own soul. |
| 172 | ** ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'': Yusei and Jack's second duel, the final duel of the Fortune Cup, comes down to this as well as IKnowYouKnowIKnow. Jack attempted a BatmanGambit using his Speed Spell -- The End of Storm card, expecting Yusei to use the same trick to counter it the way he did in their first Duel; if that Duel hadn't been canceled, Jack would have lost to that trick. Unfortunately for Jack, Yusei was using a BatmanGambit of his own, and had ''wanted'' Jack to try that; his ''true'' way of countering it this time took Jack by complete surprise. |
| 173 | ** Another good example was Tron in ''Anime/YuGiOhZexal''. He came off as a sadistic monster, cruelly taunting his opponents ''and'' abusing [[BadBoss his own henchmen.]] While it would be wrong to say he didn't mean any of it (he truly ''was'' a sadistic monster), he did have a reason for doing so that he eventually revealed: His most powerful card was Number 69: Heraldry Crest. This incredibly powerful [[ArtifactOfDoom Number]] was described as the [[ThePowerOfHate "embodiment of rage"]] and very difficult to control; using it required [[EmotionEater vast amounts of anger]]. So he simply did his best to make ''everyone'' he encountered -- minions, enemies, and [[UnwittingPawn Unwitting Pawns]] -- as angry as possible, enabling him to control his ultimate weapon with ease when he finally unleashed it. |
| 174 | * In ''Anime/YuGiOhBondsBeyondTime'', [[Anime/YuGiOh Yami Yugi]] pulls one on BigBad Paradox. Earlier, Paradox had stolen [[Anime/YuGiOh5Ds Yusei's]] Stardust Dragon and when he challenges Yami Yugi, Yusei, and [[Anime/YuGiOhGX Judai]], he uses it to not only to create the Malefic Stardust Dragon, but also revive it so he can use its ability to nullify the trio's monsters' effects. Yami used the Dark Magician/Dark Magician Girl combo to initiate a special spell card to capture a monster. It goes for Malefic Stardust Dragon, but when Paradox activates an ability that prevents its capture, it goes after the next available monster: Stardust Dragon. Judai realizes that was Yami's plan all along and it essentially hinged on Paradox being more protective of his more powerful Malefic monsters. |
| 175 | * In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', the reason Sensui set it up so that the tunnel to Makai would be opened, and the events that came afterward, is [[spoiler:so that he could die in Makai at the hands of a powerful demon, since it would be nobler than to die of the terminal illness he had. Said strong demon happened to be Yusuke, possessed by the spirit of his ancestor, Raizen]]. |
| 176 | ** Later in the manga-only final arc, it was revealed that ''everything'' the heroes faced was an elaborate setup by [[spoiler:King Enma]], who purposely pardoned dangerous criminals with the specific hope that his detectives would capture them and thus make himself look better. |
| 177 |
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