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1->''"It is a military fact that Grock failed, because two of his soldiers obeyed him. It is a military fact that he might have succeeded, if one of them had disobeyed him."''
2-->-- Creator/GKChesterton, ''The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond''[[note]]If you're wondering what's happening, an explanation of the situation can be found under Literature, below.[[/note]]
3
4Even the best laid plans can have a chance of failure. Maybe something was overlooked. Someone with obscene amounts of resources would start a new plan from stage one, but often that's not possible. The previous action had some success, and to implement a completely new path could require a lot of resources and time, which may not be available. An entirely new option would be like using a new fuel source for your house every time a light bulb goes out.
5
6A rational response would be to just fix what was already there, making sure that the problem that arose is less likely to happen again. Unfortunately, it still will, specifically ''because'' of the fix.
7
8When someone tries to solve a problem, the solutions counteract each other, making a negative outcome easier (or possible). Depending on the consequences, this could be PlayedForLaughs, PlayedForDrama, or [[{{Schadenfreude}} both]]. Simplified, it could be like flipping a switch, then flipping it again, not realizing it had been done the first time.
9
10Consider DidntThinkThisThrough, when one person does it. Because this requires some knowledge of what went wrong previously, the fixes ''may'' have been thought through, just not [[CrazyPrepared for every possible interaction]], or maybe even [[FailedASpotCheck overlooking exceedingly obvious interactions]].
11
12Compare TragicMistake, HoistByHisOwnPetard, DidntSeeThatComing, RightHandVersusLeftHand, GambitPileup, GiftOfTheMagiPlot, AbileneParadox, and TooManyCooksSpoilTheSoup. Alternatively, "[[SarcasmMode Nice job]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero breaking it, hero]]/[[NiceJobFixingItVillain fixing it, villain]]!". DickDastardlyStopsToCheat is a VillainBall SubTrope. If pulling this on another party is part of a gambit, it can overlap with KansasCityShuffle.
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14ReverseThePolarity, a PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo, and LotsaPeopleTryToDunIt can all easily lead to this. Can also be a result of PoorCommunicationKills.
15
16Since at least a temporary DownerEnding is the point of this trope, '''expect some spoilers'''.
17
18----
19
20!!Examples:
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22[[foldercontrol]]
23
24[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
25* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', both Light and Mikami decide to kill [[spoiler:Takada]] after she gets kidnapped and has [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived her usefulness]]. Unfortunately for Light, and fortunately for Near, Mikami's decision to kill her on his own without checking with Light first [[spoiler:ends up leading Near right to his Death Note, thus [[SpannerInTheWorks spannering]] Light's [[ThePlan plan]] to prevent Near from finding it.]]
26* In the ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' episode "Cowboy Funk," Andy and Spike find themselves trapped in an elevator and speeding toward an armed explosive. Spike confidently reveals that he had planned for such an event and had reset the security code on the elevator's manual override. Andy confidently reveals that he had done the same thing... thus RE-resetting the code to its original setting and locking them both out.
27[[/folder]]
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29[[folder:Comic Books]]
30* In ''Comicbook/{{Asterix}} and the Big Fight'', the Gallo-Roman Chief Cassius Ceramix shows his contempt for Chief Vitalstatistix by turning his back on him. His [[TooImportantToWalk shield-bearers]] then do likewise, leaving a bewildered Ceramix facing Vitalstatistix again.
31* In ''Recap/TintinTintinInAmerica''. A gangster tries to throw a vase at Tintin from behind to knock him out. However as he throws the vase Al Capone opens the door Tintin is listening at, knocking his gun away unintentionally, but causing him to be hit by the vase and knocked out. This allows Tintin to incapacitate Pietro and evade the other gangster.
32[[/folder]]
33
34[[folder:Fan Works]]
35* ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi'' is off guard and vulnerable after [[spoiler:dueling a Horned Reaper]], and might have been successfully assassinated either by the fairies, or by her rival Keepers, if the two groups didn't keep getting in each other's way.
36* In ''Fanfic/{{Ultrasonic}}'', during a battle with an akuma called the Chemist. Ladybug manages to separate her from her weapon, a possessed beaker, and she throws her yo-yo at it intending to break it. At the same time, Chat Noir chases after the beaker and would have been able to grab it in time if the yo-yo hadn't hit his hand and caused him to knock it away. As such, the Chemist gets the beaker back and the fight gets drawn out.
37[[/folder]]
38
39[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
40* Franchise/JamesBond:
41** In ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'', Bond and Tiffany both have the idea of swapping the control tape for Blofeld's KillSat with a fake. Result: the real tape gets swapped right back into the machine. In fact, she thought he was slipping her a fake tape as a signal that she should make the switch for him since he'd been captured. He was actually just trying to get her to get rid of the control tape he had already switched out, so the guards wouldn't find it on him if he was searched.
42** ''Film/LicenceToKill'': Bond travels to [[BananaRepublic Isthmus City]] to take down the drug lord Franz Sanchez [[ItsPersonal after he maimed Felix Leiter and murdered his wife]]. However, his assassination attempt against Sanchez is foiled by Kwang, an undercover Hong Kong narcotics officer posing as a Chinese drug baron in an attempt to entrap Sanchez, who's pissed that Bond interfered in his plans. A struggle ensues during which [[VillainousRescue Sanchez and his men attack Kwang's hideout]], killing Kwang and his Hong Kong narcotics associates.
43* In the political satire ''Film/TheRiseAndRiseOfMichaelRimmer'', just as the eponymous Rimmer is about to stage a popular coup one of the people he's pissed off attempts to shoot him from a high window while another is preparing to throw a bomb. Unfortunately the gunman falls out of the window onto the bomber, and the bomb goes off next to them.
44* In the sex comedy ''Film/TheNakedDetective'', three simultaneous attempts on the life of Harthcourt Higglesbotham III just wind up canceling each other out. His fourth wife Roxanne tries to kill him with rat poison (which kills via blood thinning)--while his nurse Annie tries to overdose him with vitamin K medicine (which is a ''coagulant''). The drug interactions still send him into seizures, but his daughter-in-law Irene tries to shoot him and completely misses--and the resulting adrenaline spike allows Higglesbotham to survive the seizures. And then he gets accidentally killed by antacids contaminated with bug spray.
45* In the ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' short "Beer Barrel Polecats", the Stooges are all working together to brew their own beer. One step required ''one'' of them to put the yeast into the wort. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to one another, each of them put in the yeast, and the result was, quite naturally, a massive bubbling up in the wort that caused an explosion.
46[[/folder]]
47
48[[folder:Literature]]
49* In one of the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novels written by William Shatner, two independent groups are trying to rescue hostages from a base in low orbit around a planet. Saving them requires destroying either the main power generator or the backup power generator -- but not ''both'', as that would cause the base to lose orbit and everyone to die. One of the groups chooses to disable the main generator for their rescue attempt, while the other group chooses to disable to backup generator. Both put their plans into motion at exactly the same time. Tragedy results.
50* In the Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures novel ''Cold Fusion'' the Doctor does this to himself. There are some galaxy shattering grenades that can be disarmed by [[ReverseThePolarity reversing the polarity of the neutron flow]], which he does so he can fake out the villain by pretending that they've won when they send the duds to the target. Then [[TimeyWimeyBall his past self]] finds the grenades and re-reverses the polarity thinking ''he's the one'' disarming them. Which means the bombs are live when sent to their target.
51* One of Creator/GKChesterton's ''Literature/TheParadoxesOfMrPond'', "The Three Horsemen of Apocalypse", concerns a field marshal whose soldiers were ''too'' eager to obey his orders. The marshal sent the first of the three horsemen with orders to execute a politically troublesome poet; when the prince arrived, fully aware of the marshal's intentions, he sent a second horseman to carry a reprieve. The marshal then sent a third horseman with orders to shoot the second; unfortunately, the first horseman surmised the second horseman's purpose and shot him, so the third horseman ended up shooting the first horseman by mistake. As a result, the execution order never reached its destination, and the poet went free, much to the marshal's consternation.
52* The Russian fable about Yeruslan Lazarevich includes him battling a king who can only be killed by a particular sword. The sword lies under the head of a giant who already tried to fight him. Fortunately for Yeruslan, the head is still alive, and warns him of the catch -- strike the king only once. A second strike will heal him.
53* ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster'' has countless moments of this. Probably the most excruciating example is [[TheTeetotaler Gussie Fink-Nottle's]] famous school awards speech, brought about because both Bertie ''and'' Jeeves had spiked his orange juice with alcohol in the hopes of [[LiquidCourage curing him of his nervousness.]] [[GoneHorriblyRight They succeeded]]. Oh, and Gussie ''also'' decided to have a drink to steady his nerves.
54* ''Who Put the Pepper in the Pot?'' A family is having stew for dinner, and you can guess [[BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce what happens]].
55[[/folder]]
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57[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
58* In ''Series/AirCrashInvestigation'', many of the incidents are caused by a maintenance job that was done correctly save for one minor detail, or by a perfectly copacetic repair job that somehow introduced a problem or allowed an unknown pre-existing problem to start wreaking havoc.
59* In one ''Series/MadAboutYou'', Paul & Jamie left their apartment in the middle of the night still in their pajamas. Paul "pushed the little button" which deactivates the latch lock on the door so that they could get back in and not have to take their keys. Jamie doesn't know that Paul did that so she pushes the little button too, so now they're locked out but don't discover that until they come back from whatever adventure they had.
60* ''Series/GilligansIsland'':
61** On one an episode, a homing pigeon landed on the island, and the gang realized they could send a note home with it. The Professor said the pigeon was too thin to make the trip home, however, and needed to fatten up with a proper diet and exercise. But the rest of the gang, impatient to leave, overfed the bird, and the next morning the bird was too fat to make the trip.
62** On another episode, the Skipper had both insomnia and was sleepwalking when he did sleep. The Professor got the idea of borrowing Mr. Howell's tranquilizers, and putting them in the Skipper's coffee; but then, not knowing he had done so, Ginger put another one in his coffee; and not knowing ''either'' of them had done so, Mrs. Howell added a third, and so on, until the Skipper noticed the pills and added one himself, drinking ''six'' of them. (Gilligan, amazingly, was completely innocent here.) It helped him sleep, but suffice to say it took a ''long'' time for him to wake up.
63* During a war games exercise in an episode of ''Series/GomerPyleUSMC'', Sergeant Carter gives the unwitting Pyle a false plan with the expectation that he'll get caught and reveal it to the opposing team through his own incompetence. Unfortunately, when Pyle does get caught, he decides to fool the opponents by giving them a fake target... which is the exact one Carter had been planning to attack in the first place.
64* In an episode of ''Series/{{Chucklevision}}'' both Chuckle brothers try to turn off the Earth-destroying weapon of Ping the Pitiless. As a result it gets turned back on.
65* In the multi-Doctor ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Day of the Doctor", the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors both point their sonic screwdrivers at the time portal to ReverseThePolarity.
66-->'''Eleventh''': It's not working.\
67'''Tenth''': We're ''both'' reversing the polarity.\
68'''Eleventh''': Yes, I know!\
69'''Tenth''': There's two of us. I'm reversing it, you're reversing it back. We're ''confusing'' the polarity!
70* In one episode of ''Series/{{MASH}}'', the entertainment division keeps sending boring movies to the 4077th. Pierce and Hunnicut get wind of a film that was released without approval of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, and pull strings to get a few labels switched. Colonel Potter, meanwhile, pulls strings to get the good movie sent to the 4077th...
71* Not an infrequent problem on ''Series/WorstCooksInAmerica''. For example, one instance in season 2 (after two of the contestants had their teams swapped) involved a newcomer to Anne Burrell's team making mashed potatoes. He had remembered that the proper way to prepare the potatoes involves salting the water in which they were boiled. However, ''two'' of his new teammates were afraid that he didn't know that unsalted water for boiling potatoes is one of Chef Burrell's big no-nos, so they ''both'' made sure to add "enough" salt. Sure enough, when the chef checked on the water, she found it way too salty to use. Luckily, she checked this and warned him before he put the potatoes in the water.
72* One episode of ''Series/ThirtyRock'' has Tracy and Jenna try to solve people's problems, declaring themselves "The Problem Solvers," wearing shirts that say "The Problem" and "Solvers." Unfortunately for them, they're standing side by side in such a way that their shirts read "Solvers The Problem." Jenna asks whether they should switch shirts or positions, to which [[CloudCuckoolander Tracy]] says "Just to be safe, let's do both," resulting in their shirts still reading "Solvers The Problem," but now Jenna's shirt is too big, and Tracy's, too small.
73* In the episode of ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' where Frasier and Niles briefly take over a restaurant, they each keep adding more brandy to the Cherries Jubilee, each unaware that the other is doing the same. The result is so boozy that when it's flambéed it goes up in a huge conflagration and sets off the sprinkler system.
74[[/folder]]
75
76[[folder:Radio]]
77* In ''Radio/TheMenFromTheMinistry'', as two Mayors of different London boroughs are tied into a fierce argument over the fluoridation of a shared reservoir, Hamilton-Jones decides to make one of them change their mind on the matter. Unfortunately, Lamb, thinking HJ isn't going to do anything about it, does the same to the other mayor, which takes the whole debate back to its starting point.
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79
80[[folder:Video Games]]
81* In ''VideoGame/ManOfMedan'', two potential ways to get off the ship are to have Conrad escape in the speedboat so that he is able to go to the Coast Guard for help, or to retrieve the distributor cap from the pirates. If you manage to do ''both'' of these, however... [[spoiler: the rest of the heroes will escape the ship before Conrad gets there. With no knowledge of the dangerous hallucinogenic gas on board, Conrad will wander into the ship looking for his friends, and it's heavily implied that he doesn't make it back out.]]
82* ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'': During the final levels most locations need repulsion gel, propulsion gel or conversion gel, which is usually pouring out of a broken pipe. So during the boss fight, all pipes are sealed, leaving you without gel or even portals. As you can no longer use portals, [[spoiler:Wheatley]] happily throws bombs at you, knowing you can't send them back like you did in the first game. Thing is, the bombs are more than capable of breaking those pipes, spreading conversion gel which lets you place the portals needed to throw back the bombs. The bombs were also wholly redundant based on the immediate flow of neurotoxin. More patience would have meant a win anyway.
83%%** And then [[spoiler: averted, by ''another'' failsafe]]. And then [[spoiler: played straight, by a ChekhovsGun]]
84%%* VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia hits this trope left, right and sideways. The heroes constantly have to keep changing their plans into fixing the problems of the world and then being ready to fix what the last plan caused.
85* In ''VideoGame/SlayTheSpire'', several Boss Relics grant you an extra energy each turn, but prevent you from doing something else (such as Resting, gaining Potions, or gaining Gold). Usually this payoff is acceptable, but can ''really'' come back to bite the player if they fight an Elite or accept a Curse in exchange for a random relic, as the random relic may be the Regal Pillow [[note]]Which heals you each time you Rest[[/note]], the Potion Belt [[note]]Which increases the number of potions you can carry[[/note]], or the Old Coin [[note]]Which grants you a large amount of Gold[[/note]].
86* If you befriended Papyrus in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', then you'll receive a call from him in Waterfall asking what you're wearing. As it turns out, he's asking on behalf of Undyne, who is trying to hunt you down and kill you. Should you lie to him, or tell the truth but change up your equipment later, then Papyrus will tell her that you were wearing something else in an effort to cover for you... [[AccidentalTruth not realising that he'd described the exact thing you were actually wearing.]][[note]]If you don't do either of these things then [[SchrodingersGun he'll opt to tell her the truth instead]], assuming that you'd realised something was up and given him a false answer. [[MortonsFork Either way, Undyne ends up coming after you]].[[/note]]
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88
89[[folder:Webcomics]]
90* In [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2012-04-08 this]] ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' strip, Sergeant Schlock jumps down a very deep hole in a suit he thought could fly. It can't. Tagii, the AI piloting the warship Schlock works on, tries to catch him with a missile. Schlock accidentally destroys the missile while trying to [[RecoilBoost slow down]] with his PlasmaCannon.
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93[[folder:Western Animation]]
94* The ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' episode "That Smarts" sees Pinky [[FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome becoming even smarter than Brain]], but neither being happy with it. Brain concludes that one of them ''has'' to be stupid, and so uses the machine that made Pinky smart on himself in reverse. At almost the same time, Pinky independently decides he doesn't like being smart and does the same to himself. Both ended up [[Catch22Dilemma too stupid to operate the machine and make themselves smart again]], [[SnapBack and it's never explained how any of this is reversed]].
95* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "Monkey See, Doggy Two" is about Mojo Jojo trying to revise his plan from a previous episode. There he [[ForcedTransformation turned the Powerpuff Girls into dogs]] with a magic statue, but one of them [[ButtBiter chomped him in the ass]], he dropped the statue, and it breaking [[HoistByHisOwnPetard turned him into a dog]]. To correct this, Mojo took two "precautions": First, he covered his butt with a steel plate, which would've been all that was needed. Second, he refused to turn the girls into dogs, which was a pretty bad decision, but turning them into dogs didn't work the first time. However, that problem would've been remedied by the butt plating. [[JustBetweenYouAndMe Telling the girls how he fixed his mistakes]] = pretty stupid. All three combined just led to a normal beatdown.
96* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Apu and his wife Manjula had trouble conceiving a baby. Then they started to use fertility drugs--unaware that Homer, Marge, and Bart were independently [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink slipping some into Manjula's food.]] The combined dosage was so high they ended up with octuplets, and almost went broke due to the resulting expenses.
97* A ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode featured a giant worm terrorizing Bikini Bottom, and Sandy deciding to go after it. Not believing she had a chance of winning, the citizens pushed the entire town into another area. Sandy and [=SpongeBob=] end up driving the worm off a cliff...and guess what was moved to the bottom of it.
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100%%[[folder:Real Life]]
101%%[[/folder]]
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