Line #70 BatmanGambit/WesternAnimation


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6	{{Batman Gambit}}s in WesternAnimation.
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8	* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'':
9	** Finn uses a Batman Gambit on ''himself'' in "The Real You". While made super-intelligent by magical glasses, he created a black hole, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation went insane]], and tried to kill dozens of people until Princess Bubblegum removed the glasses and normal stupid Finn destroyed the black hole through sheer recklessness. [[spoiler: Smart Finn planned every single step ahead of time. [[CrazyPrepared Even the part where he went insane.]]]]
10	** In "The Lich", the Lich [[spoiler: disguises himself as Billy, and tricks Finn into gathering together the Gems of Power from Ooo royalty to activate a secret power of the Enchiridion, which opens a portal to the "Time Room" owned by the wish-master Prismo. Finn tries to destroy the Enchiridion to keep it out of the Lich's hands, but it turns out breaking the Enchiridion is what activates the portal, and Finn destroying it was part of the Lich's plan all along]].
11	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': In "The Puppets", Darwin's obsession with his childhood puppets Howdy and Frank causes him to get trapped in a fantasy world. Gumball travels there to rescue Darwin with the help of a third puppet named Grady. Unfortunately, Grady betrays Gumball and reveals his plan was to exploit Gumball and Darwin's brotherly bond so Howdy, Frank, and Grady could capture them both and force the boys to play with them forever.
12	* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'':
13	** In the episode "Failure Is Not a Factory-Installed Option", after a car salesman messes with Stan's head to make him buy a car he doesn't want, Stan goes insane and starts living on the streets, depriving his family of their sole source of income (his paycheck). This forces them to shop at the same discount grocery store as the car salesman. Seeing the devastation his aggressive negotiations have caused, the salesman is shamed into giving Stan a much better deal on a car. Stan then whips off his crazy homeless guy clothes and reveals this sequence of events was all part of his master plan to get the better of the salesman. The fact that this plan led to his family nearly starving and his daughter prostituting herself for grocery money [[{{Jerkass}} doesn't seem to concern him]].
14	** Considering how many cars he had been tricked into buying, it might have been more humiliating for the family otherwise.
15	** In a later episode, "Widowmaker", Francine wishes Stan was more open with her like her neighbor Julie did with her husband Craig, who has been missing for three weeks. After some "therapy" with Roger, Stan becomes very open with Francine, including the fact that he killed Julie's husband for being a blabber-mouth by order of the CIA (and going into graphic detail). Then Francine accidentally tells Julie and has to knock her out so the CIA doesn't decide to kill Stan for the same reason as Craig. Then it all turns out this a plan by Stan and Craig so Francine will quit bothering Stan, and so Craig can get away from having to talk to Julie by moving to a tropical island and taking a new wife.
16	** In "The Scarlett Getter", Stan meets an old flame from his CIA training academy and he starts to re-develop feelings for her and ignore Francine. Francine is so irritated by this hookup, she tells Roger to put on a disguise to steal Scarlett from Stan. This works, but Stan wants to break up Roger and Scarlett and hires an alien hunter to capture Roger. Stan and the hunter arrive at the cabin where Roger and Scarlett are planning to have sex, where it turns out that [[spoiler: Scarlett is an alien hunter herself. She knew Stan had an alien in his house before their "chance" encounter each other and used Stan to get to Roger and dissect him]].
17	** "Bar Mitzvah Hustle" shows what happens when one goes awry. [[spoiler:Steve plans out a very ''Film/OceansEleven''-esque present heist in order to discredit the guy who stole his girlfriend. Things go smoothly, as he is able to use a decoy heist in order to get his target's attention off his real goal: [[KansasCitySuffle the money he's been receiving for his bar mitzvah]] (Steve is trying to cause his target to become paranoid and reveal he's just a greedy little boy for being so concerned with his presents). His plan is to use Snot as an unknowing patsy to get the money out of the party by slipping it in his coat and provoking him to leave by spilling juice on his shirt. This almost works [[SpannerInTheWorks but Snot comes back right at the critical moment and unintentionally reveals he was carrying the money]].]] Steve even notes how his plan is almost foolproof [[GambitRoulette unless that exact thing happens]].
18	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'', Malory had killed the Prime Minister of Italy [[spoiler: who was responsible for the death of a man, who might be Archer's biological father]]. So she shot herself, make up a story of armed thugs, and called Archer and everyone in ISIS to dispose the body. She even called the police on herself to make it look real.
19	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', Arthur refused to take D.W. to a science museum. The next day, D.W. shows off her own science exhibit... which includes such explanations as "H₂O can be made by combining O (oxygen) with H (a hose)" and "the sun turns off at night." So, Arthur and the Brain finally take her to prove her wrong, but D.W. reveals that her whole plan was to be taken to the museum.
20	* In the Season 2 finale of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', [[TheDragon Princess Azula]] and her two minions dress up as Kyoshi warriors in order to infiltrate Ba Sing Se and get in with the Earth King in order to get information about the current state of affairs in the city. She then realizes what a perfect position this puts her in and has her minions pretend to let slip that they are Fire Nation in front of the Dai Li in order to get them to capture her and bring her before Long Feng (their recently imprisoned leader) so he can blackmail her into helping the Dai Li organise a coup against the Earth King, [[ObfuscatingStupidity all while making him think that she's just a somewhat intelligent Fire Nation princess in way over her head]]. While organising the Dai Li, she uses her charisma and intimidation to leave them in awe and fear of her. When Long Feng ([[TheStarscream inevitably]]) tries to betray her and finds the Dai Li won't go through with it, she points out that they are intimidated enough of her that they'll just stand back and see what happens, before giving a HannibalLecture to Long Feng which gets him to submit to her. To top it all off, [[TheCorrupter she gets Zuko to help her take on Aang and Katara, by dangling the first actual, tangible opportunity to fulfill his mission and restore his honour]], and uses this and her savviness to actually [[HeroKiller kill Aang]] (he got better). Thus, with the help of only two warriors (who [[BadassNormal aren't Benders]]) and [[TheChessmaster her own wits]], [[MagnificentBastard this 14-year-old girl manages to achieve in a matter of days what whole armies couldn't in a whole century.]]
21	** Zuko's attempt to use this Gambit against Azula in the GrandFinale is subverted. He attempts to bait the [[VillainousBreakdown already insane]] Azula into shooting lightning at him so he can redirect it back at her. Azula, in spite of her mental breakdown, chooses to shoot the lightning at Katara instead.
22	* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'':
23	** This is how Cricket wins against Gramma for his RiteOfPassage in "Cricket Versus". Upon seeing he's too strong to defeat, he seemingly appears to surrender and give up the fight, knowing he is truly a Green by heart, and she's fine with that. But then Cricket reveals he was just doing that so she's sympathetic enough for him to tackle her and pin her down, screaming "[[IronicEcho NEVER LET YOUR GUARD DOWN!]]" as he finally defeats her and completes the ritual.
24	** This was how Chip Whistler manages to become CEO of Wholesome Foods in early Season 2; he knows the Greens are innocent, sincere, and kind to their customers, so he uses their kindness to his advantage to make them (Cricket especially) think he's sorry for trying to ruin their business so they can be convinced he really means it so they can sign the contract proving they forgive him. Doing such not only grants him full power over Wholesome Foods, he can now focus on running the Greens out of the Big City without his dad interrupting him.
25	* ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6TheSeries'': The large majority of [[BigBad Obake]]'s plans involve people doing exactly what he wants them to, and the heroes succeeding in [[FailureGambit foiling his minions' attacks]] because his plan requires them (or at least Hiro) to survive. This ultimately [[HoistByHisOwnPetard bites him in the ass]] when [[spoiler: Globby does a HeelFaceTurn and all the members of Big Hero 6 use their combined talents to ruin his master plan]].
26	* In ''WesternAnimation/BikerMiceFromMars'' Napoleon Brie, the [[EvilVersusEvil rival]] of [[BigBad Lawrence Limburger]], does it at least three times:
27	** In [[EstablishingCharacterMoment his first episode]] he sends his [[EliteMooks Doom Rangers]] to Chicago to attack Limburger's forces, knowing that the sting of losing would make Limburger accept his challenge to a fight to determine who would keep both Chicago and Detroit… a challenge Brie would win, thanks to superior firepower, training and abilities of his commander.
28	** "Back to Mars": he knew it was just a matter of time before the Biker Mice would capture Limburger and bring him to Mars for trial. [[spoiler: So he beamed false information to the Martian resistance making it appears as the mice were traitors helping Limburger. This way, both them and Limburger would have remained imprisoned on Mars ( if not executed ) leaving Brie with no opposition in the conquest of Chicago.]]
29	*** In the same episode Limburger uses one: [[spoiler: he pretends with Brie's [[TheDragon Number One]] to accept Brie's victory and to become his new right-hand man due to both of them being [[FishPeople Plutarkians]], knowing than losing his position is Number One' s BerserkButton. Sure enough, Number One shoots his own boss,]] allowing Limburger to take back his tower.
30	** Lastly in "Hit The Road, Jack", Brie shown to [[TaughtByExperience have learned from the last time]]: [[spoiler: he pretends to give Number One's job to Angela to make believable when Number One would go to Limburger to take revenge on Brie, while it was a lure to draw Limburger to Detroit and destroy him with his new weapon]]. In this case he was however OutGambitted by Limburger and [[spoiler:Angela]].
31	* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': The plan of TheChessmaster [[spoiler:Henry Haber]] in "[[Recap/BobsBurgersS5E12TheMilliechurianCandidate The Millie-churian Candidate]]" is an extremely convoluted plan that's very dependent not only on playing on several people's character flaws, but that several of the involved people would fail at certain tasks -- most prominently, that Louise would get caught doing something illicit and thus get disqualified from the race. Parts of the plan bordered on GambitRoulette -- it even hinged on the fact that the only way Louise would learn [[spoiler:that Millie's "Besties" program would pair Louise with someone other than Millie]] would be by breaking into Mr. Frond's office.
32	* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/BraveStarr'', [=BraveStarr=] lets himself be manipulated into a terrible bargain with Tex Hex -- because he knows Tex is such a compulsive backstabber that all he has to do is ''wait'' for Tex to break his word, and then [=BraveStarr=] won't be bound by the agreement, either. Sure enough, Tex can't keep his word even one full day.
33	* WesternAnimation/BugsBunny demonstrates his mastery of the Batman Gambit in many cartoons, but rarely comes up against a worthy opponent, and will inevitably use simple [[KarmicTrickster tricks]], like misdirection and "pronoun trouble", to manipulate his enemies.
34	** [[DuckSeasonRabbitSeason Rabbit Season! Duck Season! Rabbit Season! Duck Season!]]
35	** [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Cecil Turtle]] used a Batman Gambit against Bugs Bunny during their second race. He does this by tricking Bugs into thinking that having a turtle shell, actually increases running speed. Meanwhile, Cecil dresses in a rabbit costume, because he knew that a pro-rabbit gang would target him so he couldn't win the race again and embarrass the rabbit species. Instead, the pro-rabbit gang targets Bugs Bunny in his turtle costume, while helping Cecil Turtle to the finish line.
36	* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'', Donna breaks her leg and guilt trips Cleveland into taking care of her and the household. Cleveland does everything he can to please Donna and she takes advantage of his by making him come up to her room for every little thing she wants. Cleveland's friends notices how soft he has gotten and they confront Donna, thinking she's not really disabled at all, and try to prove she is faking it by pushing her down a flight of stairs. Donna turns out to be just fine as she got up at the last minute and admits she is pretending to be crippled because she knows that Cleveland will push himself to take care of her since he feels guilty about not helping out more. However, [[spoiler: Cleveland knew all along that Donna was faking her injury and was working hard to make her feel guilty about having him do all the work. Once Donna got "better", she sees Cleveland is still busting his ass to please her, so she demands to resume being the housewife of the family. Cleveland pretends to agree and once Donna is working hard at home, she then realizes she was being played with all along]].
37	* On a handful of occasions, the characters in ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' would use one of these to force XANA to act in a manner they desired, namely when they were out of options. XANA wants Aelita alive from Seasons 2 to 4, so they would often put her in harm's way to force its hand. This was most memorable when Jérémie ordered Odd to [[ShootTheHostage shoot Aelita in episode "Saint Valentine's Day", where devirtualization would have meant death for her.]]
38	* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor''
39	** Double subversion in [[spoiler: "Operation: U.N.D.E.R.C.O.V.E.R." One of the Delightful Children becomes TheMole, making Sector V think he's helping them destroy the other DCFDTL's coffee supply, when it's actually a trap to steal the team's top-secret plans. As it turns, out, the KND are pulling a Batman Gambit of their own; the briefcase they steal actually has a bomb, and after the Delightful Children spring their trap, the heroes get the last laugh and manage to destroy the coffee supply anyway]].
40	** But that was nothing compared to the one in [[spoiler: "Operation: I.N.T.E.R.V.I.E.W.S", the show's GrandFinale. At the end of it, it looks like [[BigBad Father]] had restored Sector V's memories of the Kids Next Door and interviewed them for the information he needed to get revenge on Numbuh One, and they unwittingly told him everything he need to know. ''However'', in the absolute final scene, Abby -- as in, the former Numbuh Five, gets a phone call: "Hello..." ''(smiles)'' "Yeah... We told him everything he wanted to hear. See you at the Moonbase. [[WhamLine Oh, and Numbah One, welcome back."]]]]
41	* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'':
42	** In the penultimate episode, Valerie tricks [[OppositeSexClone Danielle]] into leading her to Danny so she can capture "two Danny Phantoms for the price of one."
43	** That one was nothing compared to the one Clockwork the Time Ghost pulled in TheMovie, ''WesternAnimation/TheUltimateEnemy''. Knowing everything that would happen, he manipulated events which led to Danny encountering the evil monster he could become so he could overcome it, change his future, gain his sister as a confidant, and develop his most powerful ability 10 years early, while at the same time, pull his evil self out of time so he couldn't harm his own timeline anymore. The only side effect is now that if he ever gets loose, he'll be free to travel into Danny's time without anything to teether him.
44	* Dick Dastardly pulls one in the ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'' episode "Home Sweet Homing Pigeon". Muttley, Klunk and Zilly are to be discharged, so Dastardly asks them to sign his memory book. They actually signed re-enlistment forms for four more years.
45	-->'''Dastardly:''' (''[[BreakingTheFourthWall to us]]'') Sometimes I'm so sneaky, I hardly trust myself!
46	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' has one in "Doug's Big News". Roger gets everyone kicked off the news show by taking credit for the video tribute the class made for Mr. Bone and giving Doug a phony news story that "Mr. Bone wears pink underwear." They figure getting him a present wouldn't help them get back in his good graces because Roger would take credit for it again. Doug takes advantage of this and when Roger takes the next gift, Roger gets in trouble for giving Mr. Bone pink underwear.
47	* ''WesternAnimation/DragonsTheNineRealms'': BigBad Jörmungandr pulls one in the finale by [[spoiler:attacking the Night Lights knowing the riders would stay and protect them. This gave the Apex Predator the opportunity to attack the God's Realm where most of the Hidden World's oxygen is produced without interference.]]
48	* In the ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'' episode "Corporate Pigfall", the Eager Young Space Cadet becomes CEO of a MegaCorp, and Dodgers's new cadet is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy_Boo Egghead Jr]]. Dodgers then enlists Egghead's help in getting the Cadet back. The Cadet eventually quits Macrovast, and ensures his position is vacant by making Egghead Jr. the new CEO. The final scene is of Egghead writing on his notepad "Exactly as I planned."
49	* Scrooge [=McDuck=] pulls a good one in a ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' episode. After the Beagle Boys manage to swipe Scrooge's Number One Dime for Magica [=DeSpell=], Scrooge and his three nephews manage to follow them to her island, where Magica's spell -- where she intends to sacrifice the dime -- is in the eleventh hour, and it leads to Scrooge's DarkestHour. A ShapeshifterShowdown ended with one of the Beagles turned into a dragon, and the heroes trashed. Finally, Scrooge appears to surrender, takes what he claims is his ''actual'' #1 from his hat, and offers it for his nephews being spared. He claims the one Magica has is a decoy. ("Ya didn't really think ah'd leave mah #1 out in the open didja? Offhand, ah wouldn't give ya a ''nickel'' for that dime.") Magica is convinced, and agrees, but Scrooge is bluffing, as he tells his nephews on the plane -- he manages to get his actual #1 back, rescue his nephews, and all it costs him is one ''ordinary'' dime. ("[[GoodIsNotDumb Ah didn't become the richest duck in the world for bein' stupid]]," he says.)
50	* In the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' episode "[[Recap/DuckTales2017S2E22GlomTales GlomTales!]]", Louie pulls of a masterful one. Having been captured by Flintlock Glomgold and a gathering of their deadliest foes, Louie convinces them to pool all of their money together so that their combined total surpasses Scrooge's, then convinces Glomgold to make him his partner, drawing up a contract to make it legally binding. However, he's counting on Glomgold to 1) not use his [[EmbarrassingFirstName embarrassing]] [[EmbarrassingLastName real name]] Duke Baloney and 2) not read the fine print that states that if they didn't use their real name, they would forfeit their half of the earnings. Louie even makes sure to use ''his'' embarrassing real name to make it binding. Thus, when Glomgold wins the bet and gets control of Scrooge's money and company, Louie reveals what he's done, taking possession of Scrooge's holdings, Glomgold's holdings and the savings of the villains who allied with Glomgold.
51	** Similarly, in the episode "The 87 Cent Solution!" saw the boys use this on Glomgold himself. When Scrooge starts to go insane after a meager sum of money (the titular 87 cents) is stolen from his money bin, they catch on that Glomgold is behind the scheme. So, they fake Scrooge's death and hold a public funeral, knowing Glomgold will crash it so he can gloat, and egg him on into revealing his scheme, knowing full well he's too dramatic (and too stupid) to not gloat about it.
52	* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' has this in the episode "Mission Ed-Possible". Ed and Eddy catch wind of the fact that Edd is delivering their straight-F report cards to their parents, and they're relentless in chasing him to secure the report cards for themselves so that they can change them. But when they finally manage to outsmart Edd and get their hands on his satchel, they find out [[spoiler:that before the chase began, he had given the report cards to Rolf so that he could deliver them while he drew Ed and Eddy's attention]].
53	* In the Nick cartoon ''WesternAnimation/ElTigre'' the episode Eye Caramba has a member of the Flock of Fury (the main family's arch-nemesis') trick the titular character to put up the source of his power as a bet knowing he'd stink at darts without it. Then after using lasers to guide her dart she accidentally throws it backwards, and is visibly distraught about losing her glass eye. That was just a plan for him to take home her glass eye, knowing he would give it to his father to wear, so the Flock could spy on him through the eye's built-in camera and be able to both get away from crime scenes before he arrives but also destroy his confidence and make him eventually give up.
54	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Played for BlackComedy in "The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair", in which Stewie's [[EvilTwin evil clone]] tricks [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv5fYWy3H9Q the Kool-Aid Man]] into [[ThereWasADoor bursting through a nearby wall]] by saying "Oh no!" three times, before proceeding to beat him to death with a [[BatterUp baseball bat]] and lap up his spilled Kool-Aid.
55	* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' has one in "I Only Have Surprise for You". Mac knowing that Bloo would throw him a surprise party and humiliate him, sets out to destroy the party before it can start. Only to find that Bloo had another party planned, so he goes to smash that... only to find that it wasn't meant for him but for a cute little imaginary friend named Artie. Feeling totally remorseful, and having the whole house hate him, he goes out of his way to make another party for the kid topped with him dressing up as a clown and humiliating himself. And when Mac asks Artie how good the party was he says "I only have one thing to say"... and then rips off his costume revealing himself as Madame Foster in disguise. In other words... Bloo indeed made two surprise parties, knowing that Mac would smash them both and become completely remorseful, and thus throw himself his own surprise party and therefore humiliating himself... AND EVERYONE IN THE HOUSE WAS IN ON IT.... except Eduardo.
56	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', "Godfellas", ''God'' pulls one on [[HeroicComedicSociopath Bender]] at the end. Possibly.
57	-->'''God''': Bender, being God isn't easy. If you do too much, people get dependent on you, and if you do too little, they lose hope. You have to use a light touch, like a safecracker or a pickpocket.\
58	'''Bender''': Or a guy who burns down a bar for the insurance money!\
59	'''God''': Yes, if you make it look like an electrical thing. When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.\
60	''[later in the episode, when Fry asks if God will help the trapped monks]''\
61	'''Bender''': Fat chance! God isn't gonna do ''jack''! He told me as such Himself!\
62	''[GilliganCut back to God]''\
63	'''God''': Heheh. [[AnAesop When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.]]
64	* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'':
65	** In the ''ComicStrip/USAcres'' segment "[[Recap/GarfieldAndFriendsS2E01 The Impractical Joker]]", Orson fires Roy when the latter continually makes [[YouAreFat jokes about the former's waistline]]. The other farm animals, realizing that [[WeWantOurJerkBack they need Roy as their rooster]], get the idea to have Orson hire Fred Duck, Wade's obnoxious cousin, as the new rooster, knowing that Fred is even more obnoxious than Roy. Sure enough, Fred annoys Orson so much that Orson fires Fred and re-hires Roy.
66	** In "[[Recap/GarfieldAndFriendsS3E06 Binky Gets Cancelled Again!]]", Garfield pulls this off when Binky the Clown's show gets cancelled in favor for the Buddy Bears, a SickeninglySweet show with a TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong message. Garfield decides to put an end to the show by going on to the set disguised as a cater and tells the Buddy Bears they're having pizza for lunch and asks them what toppings they would like. They immediately start fighting. As Garfield points out, no one in the world can ever agree on pizza toppings. When the focus groups find out about the fight, the Buddy Bears are promptly cancelled, and Binky gets his show back.
67	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', the entire scenario with Derek Maza, Elisa Maza's brother, was one big Batman Gambit by David Xanatos. There were many times Xanatos plans for Derek could have failed. All Derek really had to do was trust and believe in his own sister's warnings about him. [[spoiler:Elisa even gets Fox on tape admitting that Xanatos had shady plans for her brother. She gives the tape to Derek, but he clearly doesn't listen to it. Episodes later, (after the damage was done) Derek/Talon finds out the hard way he was nothing but a science experiment, and a personal stab at Elisa Maza. David Xanatos, himself, even criticized his scientist, Anton Sevarius, for being a bad actor -- something Derek should have noticed being an ex-cop. "You always overplay your hand, Anton."]]
68	* ''Franchise/GIJoe'':
69	** In the ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' "Mass Device" story, G.I. Joe stages a phony internal message telling of their supposed surrender to Cobra, successfully banking on their enemy intercepting it and being fooled by what they are listening in on. As a result, Joe buys itself enough time to hunt down the last of the elements it needs; however, Destro, although fooled himself to a degree, is not taking any chances and proceeds to retrieve the same materials himself.
70	** ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeRenegades'' features James "Soon to Be Destro" [=McCullen=] attempting to pull this off by baiting the Joes into attacking Cobra so he can pressure Cobra for a major contract. Backfires horrifically as he ''literally'' [[YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith did not know who he was dealing with]].
71	* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' Mabel pulls one off at the end of "Tourist Trapped" when the gnomes wanted to marry her. When the main gnome went to give her a kiss, she pulls out a leaf blower, sucks him in and shoots him out of it.
72	* Skeletor does a brilliant (for him) multi-part gambit in the three-part "Council of Evil" episode of ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse''. The first stage combines it with a UriahGambit, ordering his henchmen (''all'' of them) into a situation where he knows they'll be found by the heroes, beaten rather badly, and apprehended. This leads to stage two; with the heroes reasonably sure that Skeletor has been crippled, they let their guard down, Randor himself deciding to take a vacation. Man-at-Arms is the only one who seems to smell a rat and remain wary, but unfortunately, that is ''also'' part of Skeletor's plan. When the villain proceeds to lead the Masters into a series of ambushes using his eponymous new team (made up of formerly independent villains from previous episodes) the heroes are caught off guard and beaten, Man-at-Arms worst of all by Skeletor himself. (in other words, Skeletor's trap ''counted'' on him being the StraightMan.) Unfortunately for Skeletor, he and his crew ''still'' remains blind to Adam's true significance, and this temporary victory goes straight to the villain's head; his failure to [[BondVillainStupidity do them in when he has the chance]] is, again, what ruins his plan.
73	* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'':
74	** Helga pulls off quite an impressive one in "School Play". Helga wants to play Juliet in order to get a kiss from Arnold's Romeo, but since she didn't audition, the part is given to Rhonda with Sheena, Phoebe and Lila as the understudies. So she comes up with a plan to convince each girl to drop out of the role by exploiting their idiosyncrasies. First by taking the role of head costumer and constructing a hideous frock for Juliet, knowing that [[AlphaBitch Rhonda]] would [[TheFashionista object to wearing it]]. Then she informs the queasy, pacifist Sheena about the violence in the play, and finally, she exploits Phoebe's perfectionism and nervousness to scare her out of performing. Unfortunately, none of these worked on Lila, who correctly guesses that Helga wants the role to kiss Arnold. Helga is forced to tell her and Lila agrees to drop out of the part.
75	** Ernie does one in "Oskar Can't Read?". Oskar recites the first page of ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities'' to everyone in the boarding house. However, Oskar had previously bribed Chocolate Boy with chocolate to read the page for him. Ernie is skeptical since he knows that Oskar has a history of lying and cutting corners. Ernie grabs ''Literature/WarAndPeace'' and tricks Oskar into "reading" what he memorized instead. With Oskar exposed as a cheater, the others join Ernie in [[WhatTheHellHero calling him out on it]].
76	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hilda}}'': In [[WesternAnimation/HildaAndTheMountainKing the film]], this is the crux of the Mountain King's EvilPlan. He gathers an army to invade Trolburg, throws boulders to destroy the bell towers, breaks through the wall to the city, and then [[spoiler:does nothing but stand there, [[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants menacingly]], and wait for the humans to react to his presence so that Amma will rise to defend her children, destroying Trolburg in the process, [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning not even moving a muscle to save his own life]]]]. It ''almost'' fails, but unfortunately, the one person who behaves as he needs to is [[GeneralRipper Erik]], the one person with the most power. [[spoiler:Fortunately, Hilda manages to convince him]].
77	* Most episodes of ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'' go like this: Gadget gets an assignment from DaChief which involves foiling one of Dr. Claw's plans, he stumbles into said plan accidentally, Penny secretly helps him, plan is foiled, villains are arrested (except Dr. Claw himself, who always escapes. Roll end credits. In one episode, however, Claw decides to take advantage of Gadget's knack for showing up to eliminate him. He instructs a sneaky agent named the Rat to start committing robberies in one city in a prearranged route, that when traced on a map, spell out M.A.D. Claw's intent is for Gadget to figure out the pattern, and arrive at one location ahead of time, where a trap will be sprung. Now, at face value, the flaw in this plan is Claw's ignorance of the ''real'' reason Gadget always shows up, but here's the kicker -- this plan ''even fools Penny'', who nearly inadvertently leads her uncle to his doom with her usual "help him secretly" routine. (She manages to bail him out, fortunately, and the episode concludes with Gadget even more confused that he usually is.)
78	* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'':
79	** When Jade is accidentally banished to the Demon Netherworld, and her family races to Shendu's portal to free her, the Demon Sorcerers head to the portal as well, their brother having claimed he could use it to free them all. It looks bleak for her when they catch her, Po Kong even wanting to EAT her! But Jade, having been informed by Uncle that Shendu was bluffing, revealed this fact to the demons, and uses the confusion caused by the fighting over who gets to escape to get through the portal herself! SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, anyone?
80	* ''WesternAnimation/JadeArmor'': BigBad the Crimson Lord pulls one in episode 25: [[spoiler:After realizing Xin Qi is trapped in the city's power grid, he has Will hook up the [=RV=] to the city's power grid while also installing a seperate power generator. Then, he has Kai shut down all electricity across the city knowing it would force Xin Qi to flee which would sooner or later result in her landing in the [=RV=]'s lightbulb trapping her.]]
81	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'' had [[spoiler: Lucius]] pull off a rather impressive one to prank [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels The Rodeo Clowns]].
82	* On ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'', Johnny himself has managed to pull off a few Batman gambits, such as [[spoiler: going without bathing just so his family, after multiple failed attempts to get him cleaned up, will give in just so he can get a water park for his best friend's birthday]], or the time he wanted to get his sister's time machine so [[spoiler: after failing the first time, he had Dukey in the future take it while the family was having dinner then come back to pick him up]]. Dukey even notes that he's not as dumb as you might think.
83	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'':
84	** In the episode "Let's Play House", Kaeloo, Stumpy, Quack Quack and Mr. Cat are PlayingHouse, with Kaeloo as the mother, Mr. Cat as the father, and the other two as the kids. Mr. Cat, however, just wants to watch sports on TV instead of playing. [[spoiler: First, when Kaeloo annoys the "kids" so much that they decide to run away from home, he does nothing about it and makes them even more annoyed so they leave. Then, after they leave, he says he wants to have sex with Kaeloo, who gets creeped out and leaves. As soon as all this is over, he turns the TV on to watch some sports. However, his plan fails since by the time he gets rid of them, his game is over.]]
85	** In Episode 106, Mr. Cat buys a bunch of seemingly useless stuff at a GarageSale. It's revealed later in the episode that he planned it out so that a) he can re-sell it to gullible people for even higher prices than he paid for the items, and b) since his bedroom is full of stuff, he can ask to sleep in Kaeloo's bedroom with her.
86	** In Episode 134, there are two consecutive Batman Gambits. Stumpy gets clones of himself and the clones annoy everyone, Kaeloo, Quack Quack and Mr. Cat make a plan to get rid of the clones. They claim that a package came in the mail for the real Stumpy, and only the real Stumpy can get it. All the Stumpy start fighting over who gets it. The original Stumpy opens a PortalDoor to another dimension and lies that Ursula is on the other side. The clones run through and then Stumpy shuts the door, trapping them there forever.
87	** In Episode 144, Quack Quack pulls one off. The plot of the episode is that Quack Quack and Stumpy are racing racecars. Due to unfair circumstances, Stumpy's car gets totaled and he can't make it to the finish line, but Quack Quack helps him push the car to the end and Stumpy wins, making Quack Quack look like a wonderful person in the eyes of his peers. [[spoiler: Then, it's revealed that he told his girlfriend to bet a huge sum of money on Stumpy winning and he lost the game on purpose so that they could win lots of money and go on vacation.]]
88	* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'':
89	** In one episode, Peggy and several other Arlenites get scammed and [[CounterZany put together a plan to scam their money back]] but it doesn't work. At this point, Hank finds out through Bobby and rushes in to help Peggy by threatening the conman. In his haste, the man stows his ill-gotten money in his room safe, then gets rid of Hank, only to discover that the safe is gone. "The Econo Suite doesn't ''have'' room safes," as the front desk clerk explains. It turns out, '''this''' was Peggy's plan the whole time, because she knew Hank would come to her rescue when he heard she was in trouble. Doubles as a XanatosGambit since she had also planted a valet to park the conman's car ("The Econo Suite doesn't have valet parking."), presumably to use his car as leverage to get their money back.
90	** In "[[Recap/KingOfTheHillS6E3LupesRevenge Lupé's Revenge]]", [[AccidentalKidnapping Peggy accidentally smuggles a Mexican girl on the way back from a field trip]]. The next day, she smuggles her back and gets arrested for kidnapping. When Hank gets to the courthouse, Peggy insists that the whole thing is a mistake on the side of the Mexican authorities [[NeverMyFault since she speaks "fluent" Spanish]]. Hank convinces her lawyer to let Peggy give her testimony in Spanish, [[MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels which she does]]. The Judge rules that Peggy did not know, [[IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance much less understand, what was going on]], and declares her not guilty.
91	** When Hank hesitantly accepts workers compensation due to having back pain he visits two doctors who thought he was either trying to commit, or were trying to help him pull off, a scam. Eventually he decides to go to a yoga studio and when his back pain is finally cured, he storms out of the studio vowing never to go back, just as an investigator takes pictures of him with walking normally, and he's charged with InsuranceFraud. At the hearing, the panel refuses to believe that a seemingly normal American like Hank would willingly visit a yoga studio, and they're about to convict him based on the pictures of him walking normally. When Hank brings in the yoga instructor, the panel tells him that [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} the instructor's antics]] [[NotHelpingYourCase are not helping him in any way]], Hank says that's what he's trying to prove: that no sane, level headed American would willingly take yoga lessons from someone like that, unless they had run out of reasonable treatment options, and were extremely desperate. Hank is declared not guilty and offered more workers comp., which includes more time off from work, and yoga lessons.[[TakeAThirdOption Hank compromises by offering to take yoga breaks at work, but with his own spin]].
92	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'': In "The Scorpion's Sting", Simba is fatally stung by Sumu the scorpion and the Lion Guard has to get some volcanic ash which would cure him; before reaching the volcano, they have a run-in with Kiburi's float, Rere's pack, and Janja's clan. They reach the volcano where they see Scar for the first time, and he reveals he knew Simba got stung because he sent Sumu, and knew the guard would come to get the ash. The crocodiles, jackals, and hyenas had their attacks planned out, and were working for Scar. When the Guard got cornered, Scar even knew Kion would use the Roar of the Elders which would be dangerous in these conditions, but he didn't know Kion learned some time before to focus the Roar ''directly'' on his target, which he uses to defeat his army, allowing the Guard to escape.
93	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': In "April Fools Rules", Lincoln boards himself in his room to protect himself of Luan's extreme April Fools pranks, but he gets a call from Ronnie Anne saying that she's coming over. Since Luan said that anyone on Loud property is fair game, Lincoln decides to spare her from the pranks by deliberately setting them all off on himself. [[spoiler: It turns out that Luan was the one who called Ronnie Anne in the first place, just so Lincoln would willingly walk right into her pranks.]]
94	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
95	** In the two-part pilot "Friendship is Magic", main character Twilight Sparkle's mentor, Princess Celestia, sends her to Ponyville to make some friends, right after she warned her about an [[PropheciesAreAlwaysRight ancient prophecy of doom]]. Turns out, her mentor predicted this. Thanks to her understanding of friendship in the second part, Twilight and her new friends saved the world.
96	** Parodied in ''WebVideo/MyLittlePonyCamaraderieIsSupernatural'', in which Princess Celestia's letter to Twilight includes the post-script "This [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial totally isn't]] a thinly-veiled Batman Gambit meant to prevent the impending Pony Apocalypse. For serious."
97	** Princess Celestia apparently loves this trope. She continues to use some variant of this in pretty much every major appearance thereafter, reasons varying from trying to teach Twilight and friends something, to playing pranks on inattentive waiters to screwing with the animal lover's head (but at least she made the bird apologize).
98	** And let's not forget the second one she pulled. She figured Discord would break out, so she had Twilight Sparkle stay in Ponyville, writing letters to her, explaining what she learned about friendship. When Discord comes and takes over Ponyville, Celestia sends all the letters to Twilight Sparkle in order to snap her out of her HeroicBSoD. Put simply, it works. Though it seemed the plan was more of a "if all else fails" plan, since she had Twilight and the others try to find the Elements first and see if they can seal Discord with that.
99	** In the Season 3 finale it's revealed that [[spoiler: pretty much all of Twilight's life after becoming Celestia's student was one big Batman Gambit so that Twilight would become an alicorn princess]], something that was slightly hinted at in "Cutie Mark Chronicles", and in fact Lauren Faust has suggested that there is more to Princess Celestia than has been depicted of her in the series. She said, in relation to the events of the flashback in that episode, Celestia sensed that Twilight Sparkle is connected to the Elements of Harmony and arranged the dragon-hatching test for her.
100	*** Though it's worth noting, for the record, that Faust did not approve of [[spoiler: Twilight becoming an alicorn]].
101	** Celestia manages to pull off two of these at the Grand Galloping Gala. The first time, she used Twilight and friends as pawns to get out of having to sit through a boring soiree. She did this at the following year's gala except this time, she counted on Discord being himself.
102	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
103	** In the Christmas Episode, [[spoiler: Santa Claus]] pulls off a beautiful Batman Gambit, [[spoiler:delivering a device to Doofenshmirtz that would enable him to brand all of Danville as Naughty, while at the same time sending Perry the Platypus a CD with a note sharp enough to shatter said device]]. When all of Danville is branded naughty, and it looks like Santa Claus won't put in an appearance, Phineas, Ferb, and their friends team up with a couple of elves, who have come to investigate why a whole town would be labeled as naughty. [[spoiler: It turns out to be a deliberate act to allow everyone to get their Christmas wish. Doofenshmirtz finds a reason to "hate" Christmas, a villainous area he felt he was deficient in; Buford performs a selfless act, thus allowing all of his friends to see him as nice; Baljeet delivers a gift to a cute girl, thus earning a kiss from her; Candace finds out that she really does know Jeremy quite well, as she got him the perfect gift; and Phineas got to be just like his hero, Santa. (Ferb gets a harmonica, but it wasn't really intrinsic to the Gambit.)]]
104	** In [[WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerbTheMovieAcrossThe2ndDimension the movie,]] Candace pulls one off against the ''workings of her universe,'' by trying to show Mom [[spoiler: the giant robot army attacking Danville, knowing that anything massive her brothers are involved in will ''[[ContrivedCoincidence somehow]]'' go away before Mom sees it]].
105	* ''Toys/PollyPocket'': In the second special ''WesternAnimation/PollyPocket2CoolAtThePocketPlaza'', Beth's plan to ruin the Pocket Plaza live opening ceremony by using Polly and Pia's TwinSwitch to her advantage was almost completely natural. She knew right ahead the girls assumed each other's identities and Ms. Throckmorton mistook one cousin for the other, and she secretly tricks Ms. Throckmorton into thinking Pia disobeyed her and when she bumps into Polly, she assumed it was still Pia in disguise with a phony American accent and grounds her, despite Polly trying to say she's not Pia. The real Pia then had to take Polly's place at the ceremony while still pretending to be her, just as Beth had expected, and since she doesn't know Polly's hotel dedication speech, Polly had to read it over the phone for Pia to deliver until Ms. Throckmorton caught her, meaning Pia's at risk of ruining Polly's reputation for not just everyone who came to the hotel, but for the whole world. [[DidntThinkThisThrough However, the only thing Beth didn't count on was that]] [[RousingSpeech Pia would improvise her own speech]], and she does so which not only saves face with her cousin, but also allows Ms. Throckmorton to realize the error of her ways and allows her to pursue her dreams of joining Polly's band; Beth's plan even fell through [[UnknownRival without the girls even knowing it was her fault.]]
106	* In the third season opener of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', Mainframe security forces have been shot out of the sky by Megabyte's military and Dot needs the few remaining to return to the Principle Office. To get enough time to lower their shields and get the survivors back inside, Dot tells them to move into a single file line to approach the hanger bay. Such a tactic would be insane, but Dot knew Megabyte's military tactics. The enemy forces took position on both sides of the allied forces and prepared to shoot them down in the crossfire. With the enemy fighters in neat little groups of their own, the good guys were able to lower shields, gun down the attacking forces with the base turrets and bring in the survivors all in one move. It didn't work out quite as clean as on paper, though.
107	* Ren does this to Stimpy in ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' short "Space Madness". Driven mad by the titular infliction, Ren (as Commander Hoek) forces Stimpy (as Cadet Stimpy) to watch over "the History Eraser Button". Despite being ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, [[SchmuckBait Stimpy goes mad with curiosity and pushes the button]].
108	* WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle are tasked with bringing a notorious outlaw, Zero, to justice for cluttering up walls and structures with painted zeroes. To do this, Rocky draws out a TabletopGame/TicTacToe board then strategically places X's and O's on it. He anticipates Zero showing up to finish the board in a diagonal win with an "O", which he does.
109	* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': In "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!", Rick Sanchez looks genuinely distraught over having been fooled by a simulation [[spoiler:inside a simulation ''inside a simulation'']], but he was in control the whole time. [[spoiler: He knew that if Morty mixed the ingredients together just as he said, that he would have blown himself up, and that the aliens were only trying to get the recipe the whole time.]]
110	** Rick's plan in the Season 3 premiere also counts. [[spoiler: He fully anticipated the Galactic Federation trying to snoop through his memories to learn how his portal gun was created, so he crafted a fake origin story where he used a virus that would grant him access to the device searching his subconscious. He then used it to BodySurf into a Galactic Federation agent and several Ricks so he could enact revenge against both the Galactic Federation and the Council of Ricks. He also anticipates Morty getting agitated enough to shoot him with a fake gun, allowing him to get the jump on the leader of the Council. ''Then'' he emotionally manipulates Beth into divorcing Jerry by saving Morty and Summer, gaining Beth and Summer's respect, and allowing Rick to take Morty on more adventures.]]
111	* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'':
112	** A double subversion occurs in the episode "Jack and the Swamp Monster". At first, it appears that Aku is using this strategy to lure Jack into a trap, using a PaperThinDisguise that makes the viewers question Jack's intelligence (and his sanity). [[spoiler: As it turns out at the end, however, Jack was never fooled for a minute, and was using a BatmanGambit of his own to lure Aku into ''his'' trap.]]
113	** Another example occurred in "Jack vs. Aku". The two agreed to fight hand-to-hand with the agreement that Jack would not use his sword as long as Aku didn't use his powers. [[spoiler: While the fight raged, Aku secretly had his undead minions find and take Jack's hidden sword. When Aku reveals that he cheated all along, Jack reveals that ''he expected'' Aku to cheat so he hid ''fakes'' all over the battleground and while Aku sorts through the fakes, Jack attacks him with the real one.]]
114	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
115	** In "Sideshow Bob Roberts", Lisa figures she can get Sideshow Bob to admit he rigged the election by insinuating he was a lackey to [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Birch Barlow]].
116	-->'''Bob''': Only I could have executed such a masterpiece of electoral fraud. And I have the records to prove it! Here, just look at these -- each one a work of Machiavellian art!
117	** In "Lisa Gets An 'A'", Lisa gets an [[BrokeTheRatingScale A++]] on a test, which makes Springfield Elementary eligible for a grant. However, she'd cheated on her test, so she struggles to decide whether to accept her award or confess her cheating and lose the school it's badly-needed grant. She ultimately confesses. However, Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers (along with Bart, Marge, and Homer) forsaw this possibility and have decided to [[TakeAThirdOption take a third option]]: having her confess to [[LatexPerfection Otto in a Comptroller Atkins mask]] at a fake ceremony and then sending her out with her parents. The real Comptroller Atkins then gives the real check to the school at the real ceremony.
118	** In "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind", Homer [[spoiler:manages to pull one off on ''himself''. After accidentally finding out about a surprise party on a boat for him, he drinks a "Forget-Me-Shot" to forget about it, then gradually puts the pieces together the next day. Even after he becomes convinced that he hit Marge and [[DrivenToSuicide jumps off a bridge]], he lands safe and sound because he anticipated that he might do that and asked them to put a moon bounce on the boat]].
119	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''
120	** In the episode "Spookyfish", the boys meet the evil Eric Cartman from a MirrorUniverse. Being the opposite of the real Cartman, he is kind and helpful. Cartman rips off his counterpart's {{beard\|OfEvil}} after he finds out that Stan and Kyle are going to send him to the other universe in favor of evil Cartman. When Stan and Kyle are trying to decide which Cartman is the one they want to get rid of, one insists that they both have to go for the greater good. They zap the other Cartman because they know the real Cartman would never say that. However, it was the regular Cartman who said that; he knew that they would fall for it.
121	** In the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die", Eric Cartman sees his revenge plot against the titular older bully fail only to reveal at the end that [[FailureGambit he had intended for it to fail]] as part of a much grander and more complex Batman Gambit. [[spoiler:His advertised revenge plot was to train a pony to bite Scott's penis off in public, which would make him start crying in front of everyone, at which point Music/{{Radiohead}} (Scott's favorite band) would show up and call him a crybaby and an uncool loser for crying in public. After he tells Stan and Kyle about this plot, they go and warn Scott about it, exactly as Cartman predicted they would. He then predicted Scott would attempt to get rid of the pony, but would not go himself out of fear of having his penis bitten off, so he would instead send his parents by telling them the pony was being abused and needed to be rescued. Which is why Cartman tipped off the farmer who owns the pony about a couple of deranged pony-murderers loose in the area, causing the farmer to shoot Scott's parents on sight. Cartman then steals the bodies, grinds them up, makes them into chili, and then [[FamilialCannibalismSurprise has Scott eat it]] while he calmly explains his entire plan in detail to him. [[BrickJoke Then Radiohead shows up while Scott is crying over the death of his parents and calls him a crybaby and an uncool loser for crying in public]].]] The scheme is a particularly good example of a Batman Gambit in that, after Cartman sets the ball rolling, the chain of events necessary to bring the plan to fruition occurs because everyone involved acts according to their character, exactly as Cartman predicts. His shocking success in this plan prompts Stan and Kyle to agree: "I don't think we should ever mess with Cartman again."
122	** In "Raising The Bar", Token produces a reality TV show ("Here Comes Fatty Doo Doo") about Cartman by tricking Kyle into filming what he thinks is a documentary. When they find out, Cartman gets a cease and desist letter, but the pilot had already aired. Token "admits" that they didn't do very well in the ratings because they were scheduled against Honey Boo Boo. Cartman, angry that he lost to "that bitch," gets rid of his lawyer and agrees to do more shows with Token.
123	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
124	** In the episode "Texas," [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick [[BerserkButton mock Texas]] in front of Sandy so she can chase them and lure her to a party they're throwing for her. It [[GoneHorriblyRight works too well]]; they end up driving Sandy to an UnstoppableRage, forcing them to run for their lives.
125	** "Hooky" reveals the hook [=SpongeBob=] encountered on the way to the Krusty Krab was a test set up by Mr. Krabs and Squidward to see if he has learned his lesson about playing on the hooks and the consequences that may follow. If [=SpongeBob=] can resist temptation and walk away, then he has done the right thing; if he gives into temptation anyway (which he ultimately does), he will be publicly humiliated, but it'll ensure him beyond a doubt he will never play on the hooks again.
126	** Season 2's "The Secret Box" implies Patrick was playing this on [=SpongeBob=], knowing he wanted to see what was in his secret box and allows him to look inside after making up with him when he tried to steal it. All [=SpongeBob=] sees is just a string before leaving, but once he's out of sight, Patrick reveals he didn't ''pull'' the string which reveals the real secret: [=SpongeBob=]'s embarrassing Christmas photo.
127	** In "Fear of a Krabby Patty", Mr. Krabs sees Plankton open the Chum Bucket for 23 hours, prompting him to open the Krusty Krab 24/7; Plankton knew he would do this because he thought this would make [=SpongeBob=] collapse from exhaustion so he's weary enough to tell him the formula; when he does not collapse, he gives him an order of 10,000 patties without breaks. Not only does this wear him out successfully, it somehow causes him to be ''[[AbsurdPhobia afraid of Krabby Patties]]''.
128	** Twice in a row in "New Leaf". Plankton reveals in the end turning the Chum Bucket into a gift shop was all a front for Mr. Krabs to befriend him and gain his trust to the point of giving him the formula. [[OutGambitted But Mr. Krabs thought ahead]] and knew Plankton would never change, so he gave him a slip of paper reading "GOTCHA!" to throw him off.
129	* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' episode "Parth Ferengi's Heart Place", Captain Freeman and Admiral Vassery are in the middle of negotiations with [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Grand Nagus Rom and his wife First Clerk Leeta]] in starting the admissions of Ferenginar joining the Federation and the latter two are humiliating Vassery, whom he believed would be easy to negotiate with. Under the pretense of wanting to spare Vassery any more humiliation, Freeman gives them a contract that gives them everything that requested, along with a massive latinum sign-on bonus should they also recruit another planet. Rom easily signs on and mocks them for being so gullible, but Freeman turns around and starts to leave. To their confusion, Freeman smugly tells them to ReadTheFinePrint, which reveals that the planet they need to recruit was [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Qo'nos, the Klingon homeworld]], which Leeta points out is an ImpossibleTask. Freeman tells them they forgot the 8th Rule of Acquisition, "Small Print Leads to Huge Risk", which impresses Rom a lot since the entire negotiations were also a SecretTestOfCharacter and he agrees to sign the original, unaltered contract.
130	* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'':
131	** In [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E11DookuCaptured "Dooku Captured"]] Dooku lures Anakin and Obi-Wan into the cave system by heading in there, knowing they're going to realize it's a likely hiding place/sense him there in the force and follow him in allowing him to trap them.
132	** The whole series itself is just a massive Batman gambit for Palpatine's [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith ultimate plan]]. By playing to the Jedi's hubris, Count Dooku's desire to destroy the Jedi, Anakin's troubled emotions, and the galaxy's tiredness of the war, he ends up making everyone do his bidding without them even realizing it.
133	* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'':
134	** [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsTheSiegeOfLothal "The Siege of Lothal"]]: [[spoiler:Darth Vader]] knows everything the ''Ghost'' crew is going to do, and plans accordingly. The only reason his victory in the episode isn't total is due to two factors: Hera's [[AcePilot amazing piloting skills]] and, more importantly, [[spoiler:Ahsoka's [[AMindIsATerribleThingToRead attempt to mind-probe]] the Force-sensitive Imperial pilot]].
135	** [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E19ZeroHour "Zero]] [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E20ZeroHourPartII Hour"]]:
136	*** Commander Sato deliberately flies ''Phoenix Home'' [[spoiler:directly at the enemy, in order to give Ezra a chance to escape and get help]]. He was aware that among Thrawn's forces there must be one overambitious fool who'd move out of position for the opportunity to destroy a Rebel command ship. He was right.
137	*** TheMole, [[spoiler:Kallus]], who's been unmasked and is being held prisoner, deliberately taunts Governor Pryce, in the middle of a VillainousBreakdown, about how [[MagnificentBastard Thrawn]] will blame her for letting the rebels escape. She gets angry and orders him ThrownOutTheAirlock -- which leaves him guarded by two stormtroopers he easily overpowers, allowing him to make his exit in an escape pod, getting picked up by the ''Ghost'' as they're escaping. His [[SmugSmiler smirk]] as he's being led into the elevator shows this is exactly what he wanted.
138	* ''WesternAnimation/SwatKats'': Dark Kat launches one in the episode "Razor's Edge". He has a couple of henchmen pretend to be an innocent couple in a building set to explode when missiles launched from the Turbokat hit it. The purpose of this was to make it look like the Swat Kats accidentally hurt innocent people, [[ConfidenceSabotage all to break Razor's confidence]], knowing he wouldn't be able to fight if he thought he got innocents hurt. This would leave the Swat Kats down a member, and thus unable to stop his bigger plan. It worked, and would've kept working, had one of the henchmen not mentioned Dark Kat, which made Razor realize something was off.
139	* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'':
140	** Episode 2: Leo and Raphael allow a minion to overhear their plan to use the minion's van to bust into the Kraang facility. The next night, the van busts into the Kraang facility, and the Kraang are there to greet it. Except the van was a diversion, and the Turtle were scaling the wall.
141	** Episode 24/25/26: The Kraang [[spoiler: put a mind-control device on April's father and allow the turtles to rescue him. They then use him to get April to leave the lair to help the Turtles and leads her into an ambush by the Foot Clan. The mind-controlled Kirby O'Neal then informs Splinter of this, and informs him that she is at Shredder's headquarters. Splinter arrives and takes out the minions, but April is just a hologram, and Shredder had already traded her over to the Kraang. Ultimately, they both got what they wanted: Shredder got Splinter out in the open, and the Kraang got April]].
142	** Episode 26: Shredder [[spoiler: reveals to Splinter that Karai is actually Hamato Miwa -- Splinter's daughter, who he believed to have died. Furthermore, he raised her believing that Splinter killed her mother. In other words, if Shredder kills Splinter, he'll always have Karai as a memento of his victory. If Karai kills Splinter, he'll always have the satisfaction that Splinter was killed by his own daughter. If Splinter kills Shredder, Karai will want Splinter dead even more. And if neither of them kill each other, he has the knowledge that he stole Splinter's daughter, and that she'll grow up cursing his name]].
143	* In ''WesternAnimation/ToddMcFarlanesSpawn'', we find out during the third and final season that Al Simmons is the victim of a Batman Gambit by Maleborgia. [[spoiler: Instead of being used to lead hell's army, he's actually used as a sperm donor to impregnate Wanda with a demon seed -- who'll be the real human general of hell's army.]]
144	* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
145	** Sideways, agent of [[spoiler:Unicron and thus chaos]] in ''Anime/TransformersArmada'' is a master at this. First he encourages Hot Shot's already cocky nature, leading to him [[spoiler: going to the Decepticon base on his own and getting captured.]] Then he works on Starscream's lack of self-esteem and Megatron's paranoia about his position to make them fight each other. The only error in his plan was that for all his manipulations and prodding of egos, [[spoiler: Megatron never killed Starscream.]] He continues this well into the series, pulling the strings by manipulating the doubtful Starscream and the power-hungry Thrust into fighting enough that [[spoiler: his master will arrive]].
146	** And in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'', Optimus Prime pulls one of these. In "Decepticon Air", he [[spoiler:tells Jazz (out loud) to get to the control panel and turn the decontamination chamber into a freezing one so they can lure the attacking 'Cons into it, but as he speaks, his shoulder badge flashes multiple times. Obviously, they overhear. Sentinel gets held hostage, and Optimus tells the jet twins to surrender and trust him, getting them all herded into the chamber. Turns out, similar to the ''Superman II'' example above, the flashing badge was "optical code" for Jazz to wire it so that everything outside the chamber is frozen]]. If the 'Cons had just used stasis cuffs, instead of deciding to be arrogant and mock Optimus, or if Sentinel hadn't shouted out that order, persuading the 'Cons to use him as a hostage, it all would have gone to the Pit.
147	*** And in "Endgame, Part 1", Megatron uses one for [[spoiler:his three Omega Supreme clones. Knowing that with his personality, the clones would probably overthrow him, and also knowing that [[TheStarscream Starscream]] would try to get the activation code himself to use the clones, he bet on Lugnut pouncing on Starscream to stop him. It went perfectly -- Lugnut got the codes, and Megatron got three walking, flying weapons of mass destruction (in more ways than one, it turned out) controlled by his most fanatically loyal Decepticons]].
148	*** Long before either examples, in "Autoboot Camp", [[spoiler:Shockwave (a.k.a Longarm)]] pulls one off. [[spoiler:He knows that Bumblebee overheard his conversation with Megatron and that Bumblebee has asked for his help in exposing the spy: Wasp. After providing more evidence towards Wasp's "treachery" while guiding [[UnwittingPawn Bumblebee]] along the way, Shockwave plants evidence in Wasp's locker, [[RedHerringMole setting him up take the fall.]] In the end, Wasp is arrested for treason, and Shockwave goes on to become Head of Cybertron Intelligence.]] If Bumblebee had told Sentinel about [[spoiler:the possible Decepticon spy]], things wouldn't have gone as well as they did.
149	** In ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', Megatron's plan to [[spoiler:reactivate the Nemesis to destroy the Maximals and the dormant Autobots]] is dependent on Tarantulus being his usual treacherous self, [[spoiler:fixing the ship by himself in an effort to escape from Prehistoric Earth and leave everyone else behind]]. The plan would have failed if [[spoiler: Tarantulus had not been killed with the Vok and had taken the ship himself, or if Tarantulus had never found the ship in the first place and repaired it]].
150	*** Using the [[spoiler:Nemesis]] wasn't Megatron's plan before [[spoiler:Tarantulus was killed]]. Megatron was investigating Tarantulus's ruined lair for ''something'' that would be useful, since Tarantulus always had ''something'' up his sleeve that Megatron could use to his advantage. That ''something'' just happened to be [[spoiler: the Decepticon Flagship]].
151	* ''WesternAnimation/{{TUGS}}'': In "Warrior", the Star Tugs and the Z-Stacks are competing for the rock contract. As this happens, Zorran uses this tactic on Big Mac; first, as Big Mac is getting his barge loaded with rocks from the quarry, Zorran makes insulting remarks about Warrior in front of Big Mac to make him so angry that he forgets that his barge is still being loaded. When Grampus interrupts to tell Big Mac that his barge is getting dangerously low in the water, Big Mac tries to tell the quarry manager to take some rocks back, but Zorran tricks him once again by saying he thought he said he was stronger than him and his teammates Zebedee and Zak put together. When Zebedee tells Zorran that with a load as big as Big Mac's, they'll never beat the Star Tugs, Zorran reminds Zebedee that Big Mac's barge is so overloaded that he can't move too fast with it. Any wave will wash over the barge and cause it to sink, which is exactly what happens when Warrior dashes past Big Mac to collect more rocks.
152	* The Monarch pulls one off in Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'', coupled with LoopholeAbuse. After he is barred from arching Dr. Venture, he goes after his brother, Jonas Jr. instead, and gets him to escalate his offense to the point of actively trying to kill the Monarch. He then tricks JJ into thinking he was killed in a death ray blast, simultaneously to get JJ to stop going after him and to exploit a clause that states if your arch tries to actually kill you, you are allowed to start arching their immediate, Guild-sanctioned family; in other words, Dr. Venture.
153	* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronForce'': Sky Marshall Wade launches one in the episode “Hungry For Voltron”. He launches a blockade of the planet Ebb, trapping it within a super-strong force field. As Ebb depends entirely on interplanetary trade to survive, its people are forced to starve for months, forcing the planet’s leader, Sypat, to obey Wade. He has Sypat invite Princess Allura to Ebb, under the pretense of starting an alliance with the Voltron Force. Allura does indeed go to Ebb, and to show that Voltron has returned and is resisting Wade, goes using the Blue Lion, exactly as Wade anticipated, allowing him to trap her and the Blue Lion on Ebb so he can destroy them both. When the rest of the Voltron Force goes to save Allura, they’re unable to break through the force field containing Ebb as Voltron, due to missing one Lion, isn’t at full power.
154	** The above example turned out to be part of a 2nd Batman Gambit, which unfolds in the next episode “Clash of the Lions”. All the Voltron Force (minus Allura), infuriated by Wade crossing the line and going after Allura directly, decide to take the fight to Wade on Earth, bringing out Voltron right at his front door…exactly where he wants them. Once they’re there, he shoots Voltron with a special device made from Corite metal (which he’d extracted from the planet Ariel a few episodes back) that allows him to finally take control of Voltron itself.
155	* ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'':
156	** Nerissa uses a BatmanGambit to gain control of Kadma, one of the former Guardians, along with Kadma's [[PlotCoupon Heart of Zamballa]]. After Will and Kadma have cornered Nerissa in a quarry, Nerissa allows Kadma to defeat her in a brief battle. Kadma then goes for Nerissa's [[PlotCoupon Heart of Meridian]], and this enables Nerissa to take both Hearts and gain control over Kadma's mind.
157	** This is also how she gained control of the Heart of Meridian -- as Trill, she gave Elyon a jewel said to be from her long-lost mother, though enchanted to steal her power. All Nerissa had to do was wait until the power was inside it to make Elyon angry over said jewel, tossing it away -- a Heart can only be transferred willingly and when Elyon gave it up, it became Nerissa's.
158	** The last episodes of the second season of ''WITCH'' are revealed to be a BatmanGambit devised by [[spoiler:Will. The gambit consisted of enlisting Phobos's help to take the Seal of Nerissa (after making him swear on the power of Candracar that he wouldn't keep it), and then, after his predictable betrayal, maneuvering him into attacking Candracar, at which point (because of his broken vow) he would forfeit the seal and everything he'd gained by it]]. (Of course, this plan [[spoiler:failed due to one small snag -- Phobos' right hand man, Cedric, having enough of Phobos' crap and ''eating him and the power right then and there'']]!)

Context BatmanGambit / WesternAnimation