->''Whatever my one vulnerability is, I will fake a different one. For example, ordering all mirrors removed from the palace, screaming and flinching whenever someone accidentally holds up a mirror, etc. In the climax when the hero whips out a mirror and thrusts it at my face, my reaction will be 'Hmm... I think I need a shave.'''
-->-- ''EvilOverlordListCellblockB''

As every GenreSavvy hero or DangerouslyGenreSavvy villain knows, the best way to defeat most adversaries is to AttackItsWeakPoint ForMassiveDamage. But said Savvies will also know that this is coming, and may very well decide that they don't like being shot in their weak point. This is where the Fake Weakness comes in: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin faking a weakness]], whether it's [[AttackItsWeakPoint an actual flashing weakpoint]], a WeaksauceWeakness or just an AchillesHeel, to put your opponents off their guard and make them waste valuable time and energy on a red herring before you proceed with the [[CurbStompBattle curb stomp]].

Compare IAmNotLeftHanded and BriarPatching. Related to, but not to be confused with FakingTheDead. Often this is used as a justification for OurVampiresAreDifferent and the like, because if you start debunking beliefs in ''fake'' weaknesses, they might start stumbling onto the ''real'' ones.
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime ]]
* In a flashback in the first episode of ''{{Moshidora}}'', Minami, playing in a junior baseball game, intentionally makes a terrible wild swing at the first pitch she faces, letting the pitcher think she is a terrible batter who will be easy to get out. On his next pitch, she makes a solid hit.
* In HeroMan, the BigBad implants some information about his race in the mind of a guy who later does a HeelFaceTurn. This information includes the fact that the massive eye on his chest is a weak point that can be targeted to kill him. The titular robot punches said eye, putting his fist right through it -- at which point the eye socket ''clamps down on his arm'', immobilizing him long enough for the BigBad to [[spoiler: outright ''kill him'']].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]
* There was one ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' story where people discover ancient scrolls with rituals that would destroy Apocalypse. It turns out that they were created by Apocalypse himself, just to get people to try them out.
** The [[WesternAnimation/{{X-Men}} '90s animated series]] used the same plot.
* Subversion in BlackestNight, the heroes were led to believe that they had to recreate the white light of creation to stop Nekron, but their first attempt only made him stronger leading the heroes to believe they'd fallen victim to this trope. Turns out they needed to free the white entity itself to do the job right (and resurrect Nekron's undead anchor, Black Hand.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film - Animated]]
* In the film ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'', [[spoiler:Metroman pretends to be vulnerable to copper to fake his own death, because he has come to feel he and Megamind are in a rut and he wants to explore another career]].
** This comes to bite Megamind in the ass later. It turns out, a trap made of solid [[spoiler: copper]] can't stop the rampaging [[spoiler: superhero-turned-villain Tighten]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film - Live-Action]]
* [[spoiler: Skynet's EvilPlan]] in ''TerminatorSalvation''.
* In the film ''{{Seven Samurai}}'' the lead samurai says, "A good fort needs a gap. The enemy must be lured in. So we can attack them. If we only defend, we lose the war."
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]
* In Literature/TheBible, Samson made up quite a few of these to mask his true WeaksauceWeakness of cutting his hair. However, it was less an attempt to be GenreSavvy and more an attempt to get Delilah to stop pestering him about it. Upon learning each "weakness," Delilah would send some Philistine soldiers to try it out, only for Samson to laugh and kill them. [[WhatAnIdiot He apparently learned absolutely nothing from this,]] and eventually told Delilah his real weakness.
* In ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum'' the new (for a vampire) Count de Magpyre contributed to several holy books, giving them fake banishment rituals. This attempt may have been effective once, but hundreds of years later hardly anyone used them, possibly because they never actually worked, so he also worked very hard to [[AcquiredPoisonImmunity build up a resistance]] to ''actual'' vampiric weaknesses like sunlight, holy water and symbols, and [[BeatItByCompulsion anal retentiveness]].
** This backfires on him and his family when they get a sudden vulnerability to religious symbols, as they appear everywhere in a world of thousands of religions.
* One ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' book featured aliens with translucent skin and completely visible internal organs. When Jake has to fight them he realizes that no animal would evolve such perfect targets for a predator and deduces that they must be distractions. He hits one of the aliens in the one empty spot and it drops almost instantly..
* It is implied in ''Literature/TheMadnessSeason'' that many of the weaknesses that popular culture says belong to vampires were fabricated by their kind so that they could escape angry mobs relatively unharmed. Of particular interest is their "weakness" to wooden stakes. A properly skilled immortal is able to absorb the organic matter in the wood before it causes any damage to their heart. Unfortunately, some vampires wind up assuming that these weaknesses are the real deal, giving them a genuine aversion to such mundane things as garlic and holy water.
* Late in the novel cyberpunk classic ''{{Neuromancer}}'', Peter Riviera tries to get an edge in a battle with [[spoiler:Hideo, 3Jane's guardian ninja by showing his illusion generators have a second function: they can concentrate their light energy into attack lasers…which he then uses to blow out said ninja's eyes. Hideo reacts for a second…but then calms down again. What Peter didn't know was that Hideo also trained himself as a BlindWeaponmaster.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* On ''{{The Vampire Diaries}}'', Damon stabs [[spoiler:Mason Lockwood]] with a silver knife, which backfires when it turns out that werewolves aren’t actually vulnerable to silver, and he just made an enemy of someone who wanted to live in peace. And eventually we find its more than fake--silver jumpstarts their healing factor.
* An episode of ''{{Scrubs}}'' has the Janitor convincing JD that he goes into a trance when he hears the word "popsicle". Of course this just serves as another way to lull JD into a false sense of security.
* Sylar does this in the third season of {{Series/Heroes}}. Danko stabs him in the back of the head when he betrays him, which is the only spot that can stop the regenerating man via putting him in a coma as long as something is stabbed back there. Sylar gets up, though, thanks to his shape-shifting powers he got with Danko's help. He can now move his weak spot anywhere on his body, as he gloats.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Theater ]]
* Used in the musical version of ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', where a rumor is perpetuated that [[spoiler: water will make Elphaba melt]], and [[spoiler:she]] [[RetCon uses it as a way to fake]] [[spoiler:her]] death.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]
* Perhaps not the straightest example, but about halfway through ''VideoGame/PaperMario'', Bowser flat out asks Peach about Mario's weaknesses. If Peach answers honestly, there will be several [[BossInMookClothing powerful]] enemies around the next game area, but if she tells Bowser that Mario is deathly afraid of healing items, he will take this at face value, and there will be several useful items scattered around the area instead.
** The same thing happens in VideoGame/SuperPaperMario with [[ShapeShifter Mimi disguised as Merlee]] asking Mario what terrifies him the most.
* In ''NoMoreHeroes'', the boss Bad Girl will sometimes fall to the ground, seeming like a big opening for you to attack... [[TryingToCatchMeFightingDirty take a single swing at her while she's on the ground]] and she'll [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy parry, and the game will enter a cinematic of her beating you to death]]. Seems like a trap for gamers who are used to bosses who periodically leave themselves vulnerable, right? Well, not quite - she actually has two "fall to the ground crying" animations. One leads to the instant kill, and the other genuinely ''is'' an opportunity to knock her senseless. The trick is [[spoiler:to check her hands: [[SublimeRhyme If one's still on the bat,]] ''[[SublimeRhyme do not attack]]'']].
* One enemy in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' (found in the last dungeon) casts an EnemyScan on itself each turn. This is all it does. The scan shows you its HitPoints (a little over the 10000 Damage {{Cap}}) and that it's weak to lightning. Cast a lightning spell on it and while you do actually do more damage, it causes the creature to [[TurnsRed Turn Red]] and unleash a brutal counterattack. Though, anyone who trusts an enemy named "Trickster" deserves what they get.
* In the ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' series, the Gypceros will sometimes stagger and fall to the ground as if dead, only to thrash about moments later, most likely causing damage to any player that had attempted to move in to carve the corpse up.
** In later games, it actually is possible to carve the Gypceros when it plays dead. It just isn't a particularly smart thing to do because of the aforementioned thrash attack.
* This trope is inverted by Archer from ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' in the "Unlimited Blade Works" route when he gets into a fight with a 'not-holding back' Lancer. Lancer attacks and blocks faster than Archer can react, so Archer spends the entire fight on the defensive and creates intentional weak points in his defense in order to predict where Lancer will attack next in advance and block the attacks ahead of time. These are not fake weaknesses, however -- Archer comments to himself how, if he misses a single block, he'll end up ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice. Without these weak points he'll die a certain DeathByAThousandCuts instead. [[spoiler:Archer's objective isn't to win anyway, it's merely to drag out the fight long enough for the heroes to defeat Caster.]]
* Subverted in ''JadeEmpire'', where multiple characters throughout the first two thirds of the game will comment on how your character seems to have a flaw in his/her fighting style that they distracted themselves trying to exploit while you whupped their asses. All of them conclude that it is merely a clever ruse and compliment your master for such ingenuity in teaching you. [[spoiler: Thing is, once your master reveals himself as the BigBad, he proceeds to show you how to PROPERLY exploit the weakness in your character's style]].
* In ''VideoGame/ScottPilgrim'', both Natalie Adams and Todd Ingram have powerful counterattacks if the player tries to attack them while they're knocked down.
* The final boss in ''GoldenAxe'' also counterattacks the player if attacked while knocked down.
* Comes up in ''VisualNovel/SharinNoKuni''. [[spoiler: Hozuki's limp AND Kenichi's drug addiction. They're both faking them to get the other's guard down, and it works in both cases.]]
* Shao Kahn of ''MortalKombat'' does a taunt that makes him seem vulnerable. Attack him during this, however, and he'll nail you with a painful counterattack.
* The player might be able to do that with certain characters in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha''. Stand just out of range, taunt, then strike them when they move into range. Works best with someone with long range like Vega (claw).
* In the NintendoHard [[{{Persona 3}} Persona 3 FES]] epilogue, The Answer, a lot of the bosses have a specific weakness. However, they also have the corresponding Dodge/Evade skill [[FakeDifficulty with an extremely higher percentage to evade said weakness than their names indicate]].
* The BonusBoss Contrarian King in ''{{Persona 4}}'' starts off the battle by casting Red Wall on himself, which makes the target strong against fire attacks: enemies with elemental weaknesses generally try to cover them by casting the appropriate Wall spell on themselves, and taking advantage of them is strongly encouraged by the game. However, once it wears off and you try to cast a fire spell on him, he just absorbs it, causing you to both heal him and waste your turn. Though, like Trickster above, if you take a boss with that name at face value, you deserve what you get.
* ST Arachnus from ''[[BattleClash Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge]]'' will sometimes reveal a hidden weak spot in its abdomen after you hit it with a powerful attack. While attacking this spot ''does'' deal a considerable amount of damage, destroying it also opens you up to a barrage of bullets from the lower body that is almost impossible to defend against.
* The tanuki from ''Sexy {{VideoGame/Parodius}}'' looks like he has two weaknesses: his face and [[GroinAttack his balls.]] Subverted in that the game only tells you to shoot him in the face; it warns you if you shoot him in the balls. While shooting his "other" soft spot disrupts his psychic attacks, shooting him there too many times [[OneWingedAngel causes him to turn into a beautiful woman that is much harder to defeat.]]
* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': it can't be certain if [[ItCanThink if did this on purpose]], but in the final stage of the battle with Lavos [[spoiler:the [[AttackItsWeakPoint core you need to destroy]] is ''not'' the vaguely humanoid part in the center, that's just another part that will regenerate after being destroyed. The real core is the limb-like part on the left, which looks identical to the non-essential part on the right.]]
* Done in {{Sakura Taisen}} V by Ranmaru. During your second fight with him, the head of his mech is no longer his weak point and acts only as a distraction. The demonic bunny learned from his previous attempt. [[spoiler: This time, he's hiding between the main body and the propellers.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]
* In ''{{Spacetrawler}}'', Yuri gets captured by some not-too-bright alien mercenaries who intend to torture her but know nothing about human physiology. She pretends to be horrified at the prospect of eating chocolate or butterscotch, so the aliens duly try to torture her with these. In the following pages she is given more and more "tortures" of the same vein which is then finally [[spoiler: subverted as they cut off her limbs]], they remain convinced throughout that that chocolate & the like was actually torturous to her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]
* As quoted above, the EvilOverlordList condones this sort of action.
* A small one appeared in TheSalvationWar. A group of human insurgents were wiping out small groups of demons and their outposts, but always retreated when the Grand Duke of the area came with his army, making him assume that the humans feared him and his presence would always win battles. The fact he was leading his force made him easy pickings in an ambush.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' was set in a dystopian future where Mandy, [[{{Dune}} now a giant slug-thing, rules the world by her production of spice]] (namely cinnamon) and keeps around clones of Billy to keep her company. She tells Billy the "secret weakness" to her cinnamon power was frogs, and when he inevitably blabs to LaResistance it turns out she knew this would happen and was using this trope.
[[/folder]]
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