Flaw Exploitation in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Acceleration: Crawler baits Taylor into pursuing him by repeatedly taunting her about what was done to her father. Ultimately works against him when her mounting rage spurs her to hit him with something he can't regenerate the damage from.
- Child of the Storm, owing to its proliferation of manipulators and bastards, uses this a lot.
- Daken exploits Harry's rage and grief after Luna Lovegood is killed in HYDRA's attack on Hogwarts, jumping up and down on his Berserk Button to ensure that he loses it and attacking head on - something which brings him into range of Daken's claws. Of course, it could be said that despite Daken's success (in temporarily killing Harry), he came to regret that - the Phoenix resurrected Harry and went on a rampage.
- Doctor Strange is most prone to it, thanks to his profound insight into people's personalities and his vast precognitive abilities. All of his plans exploit his enemies' flaws and his allies' need to know what is happening, even if they know that he's using them (because they also know that he a) knows practically everything, b) for all his use of Exact Words, he Cannot Tell a Lie). A notable example is how he defeats Chthon at the end of the first book; he arranges for Chthon's host to take a vicious beating, then dangles Wanda under his nose, in close proximity to Harry, knowing that Chthon will go for the former, and that Harry will get in the way. Considering that Harry also has a fragment of the Phoenix living in his head, there is no way even Chthon's going to win the resulting psychic cage-match.
- Voldemort exploits Harry's unwillingness to hurt his friends in the sequel when turns them into People Puppets and drains the life from them to replenish himself every time Harry manages to hurt him, thereby bending Harry to his will (though Harry does eventually find a way around it).
- In the Forever Red arc, Harry exploits Maddie's curiosity, one of her most dominant traits, under The Stoic mask, especially about Jean. While he fails to cause the desired Heel–Face Turn straight off (and his Chronic Hero Syndrome ends up landing him in a far worse trouble), it eventually has the desired effect.
- Harry, again, does this in the Bloody Hell arc by exploiting Dracula's entirely justified fear of the Phoenix with a temporary power boost and some skills he learned from Loki (helped by the fact that he knows exactly how to imitate the entity in question). It works for just as long as it needs to.
- Voldemort, also again, exploits both Selene and Dracula's hunger for power in the run-up to the Bloody Hell arc from an apparently submissive position. While Dracula rightfully suspects his Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and appears to demonstrate how he's Eviler than Thou, Voldemort still comes out on top, leaving Selene to swing in the wind once he's got what he needed, and leaves Dracula to bear the wrath of the Avengers.
- Harry, yet again (it's basically his go-to tactic at this point, after destroying everything in sight and setting the rubble on fire), in Of Dungeons & Dragons, exploits the classical draconic fondness for talking and riddle-games to buy time to escape and out-manoeuvre it.
- Evangelion Gear: The Patriots know that Seele is spying on them, so Big Boss takes advantage by having Otacon and Mei Ling send out false information. As a result, Seele winds up bombing the wrong location.
- The Vigilante Boss and His Failed Retirement Plan: Futaba and Ojiro spread word throughout all the other departments of what a Jerkass Bakugou is. Katsuki then unwittingly helps dig his own grave simply by being himself — when other students see him, they're astounded that he's actually worse than the rumors!
- The tagline for Weakness
is "Achilles' heel is not his only weakness". His other weakness is his young cousin Patroclus. Unfortunately, (depending on how you look at it) a visiting royal from Middle-Earth finds out.
- In Winter War, it's established very early on that Aizen won the Fake Karakura Town battle, and Rangiku died of her wounds on the retreat. Gin refuses to believe that she's dead (it helps that the last he heard was that Kira had been able to stabilize her). La Résistance lures him out of his stronghold by having one of their members impersonate Rangiku and allow herself to be seen by some of Gin's men.
- The Karma of Lies: This is a key part of Lila's M.O.:
- She quickly determines that the majority of her classmates are Secretly Selfish and prone to taking Marinette's support for granted. So she sets herself up as an even better version of Marinette, with lots of celebrity connections that she could use to help them out, making them all eager to curry favor with this girl that's Too Good to Be True.
- Adrien believes that everything he does is morally right because he's the 'hero', and that everything will naturally work out in his favor without him having to do anything. Lila plays into his delusions by pretending to have had a change of heart; he's so thrilled at the thought that she's proven him right that he walks straight into her trap.
- She also attempts to do this with Marinette, setting up Adrien as her Unwitting Pawn with the intention of ruining both their reputations when Marinette tries to save him. When Marinette doesn't take the bait, having realized that Adrien was a False Friend and nothing like what she'd thought he was, Lila isn't bothered, figuring that others will assume she'll try to help him anyway.
- Coyote: Riley is afraid of hurting others. In order to force his friend to start dealing with that issue, Izuku instructs Yaoyorozu to make a blood-pill for herself, using it to trick Riley into thinking he'd injured her so that he'd start holding back.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- In You Obey, the interrogator notices that Shadowfax is quite susceptible to pride. Guess how he gets her to spill the beans.
- Blackkat's Reverse: Kurama takes advantage of Tsunade's alcoholism and gambling addiction by luring her into a drinking contest that he knows he'll win.
- OrangeLemon's Sannin Swap: During Pain's invasion of Konoha, Ino abruptly realizes that the Pains have a collective weakness: because their controller is able to see through all of their eyes, she can use her Mind Transfer to leap into one and make her way into Nagato's mind, enabling her to figure out his location.
- What You Knead: Orochimaru knows that Jiraiya has a bad tendency to follow his impulses rather than taking the time to gather more information before acting. He uses this to lure him out of Konoha right before the final round of the Chuunin Exams, knowing that Jiraiya won't be able to resist a hook baited with the prospect of catching his former teammate.
- The Keys Stand Alone:
- The Guardians exploit Ringo's addiction to his mindsight in an attempt to make him turn against the others. It works well, but John manages to get him away from their influence, albeit not before a near-tragedy.
- Knowing that outworlders have a tendency to attack other outworlders, and that people who are unjustly attacked and win get to keep their opponents' stuff, Paul successfully gets the mine-robbers to attack him—literally just by standing there and politely asking them questions—after which the four non-lethally mop the floor with them and get a bunch of useful stuff as well as more than enough money to pay off their library fine.
- In Total Drama Underdogs, Duncan frequently takes advantage of the fact that Ezekiel is reluctant to do anything disgusting or gross, as well as Eva's similar hesitance to do anything she deems cutesy or buffoonish. They later give him a taste of his own medicine by exploiting his pride, along with his own phobia.
- X-Men: The Early Years:
- This is Cyclops's specialty:Warren: I have to congratulate you, Hank. This plan was brilliant — evil, devious, used all of Will's character faults against him and played on his biggest fear. It was worthy of one of Slim's plans.
- As running from a homicidal Scott, Bobby locks him up on the roof, counting on him not daring to blast the door away and hurt anybody (else).Bobby: I'm just going to let you stay up here until you calm down enough not to kill me. Or at least until I find the professor to protect me.
Scot: Bobby! Unlock this right now, or so help me, you're dead! Did it occur to you I could just blast the door in?
Bobby: You won't! You don't have your visor. That means you can't control how powerful your blast will be. You could just as easily rip the roof off as blast down the door. You won't risk hurting the others by mistake.
Scott: Bobby! Open the door! (grumbling) I am so stupid! I fell for that one like an amateur.
- This is Cyclops's specialty:
