Flaw Exploitation in Live-Action TV series.
- Mandy in 24 season 4 takes Tony Almeida hostage and threatens Michelle Dessler that she will kill him if she doesn't help her escape (Tony and Michelle were in the same situation last season with Michelle as the hostage). Michelle sets a trap, but Mandy sees through it and kills herself and Tony. It turns out she used decoys because she knew Michelle is too honest to go rogue.
- The Aquabats! Super Show! episode "Cobraman!" has a Running Gag in which the MC Bat Commander will eagerly take on any bet that is given to him - especially a bet made a long time ago about him not seeing the Cobraman. Later on in the episode, when the Battletram is stolen, the thief, Carl, bets the Commander that he can't beat the Cobraman in a fair fight. If the Commander loses, the team forfeits the Battletram. He beats the Cobraman, but the Cobraman makes a bet to the Commander that he wouldn't let him go, which the Commander loses. The Cobraman plans to return to break Carl out of prison.
- Breaking Bad:
- In season 4 Walter exploits Gus and Hector's mutual hatred and desire for revenge, trusting that Gus will go to the retirement home to kill Hector himself, unaware that Walter has fixed a bomb to Hector's wheelchair.
- Likewise, in season 5, Jesse successfully manipulates Walter into showing him the location of his money, as he knows Walter is both too arrogant and too paranoid about it being stolen to think he might be being played.
- Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is quite good at this.
- "The Yoko Factor" is an episode where he just plays the gang against each other using their various insecurities.
- Another episode has Glory capturing him but he uses her vanity and temper against her so he can escape.
- In Burn Notice, Michael (in the episode where he helps his brother Nate's friend get out from under the thumb of a family of gun runners) in no uncertain terms says manipulating people's weaknesses is a crucial spy skill.
- Doctor Who: This is one of the Doctor's main tactics. He is repeatedly underestimated about how dangerous (for those people who don't know about him) or how ruthless (for some who do) he can be, and he plays on this to Manipulative Bastard levels. That's only if everyone else involved isn't already scared stiff of him ...
- A good example is the Doctor's defeat of the Silence in "Day of the Moon", although that could be better called "strength exploitation". He uses the Silence's powers of post-hypnotic suggestion against them to devastating effect.
- In "The Time of the Doctor", the Doctor kills a Cyberman by exploiting his own sonic's uselessness against wood and twisting the truth in a scenario where he is unable to lie.
- In recent seasons the fact the Doctor cannot resist a mystery has been established as a flaw which becomes the core of the events of "Face the Raven", leading to tragic consequences for his companion.
- The Doctor's loyalty to his companions is often exploited by villains and is described directly as one of his weaknesses by the immortal (and occasional adversary) Ashildr.
- In the Firefly episode "Objects in Space", Jubal Early takes advantage of Simon's love for his sister River and his attraction to Kaylee by presenting him with a Sadistic Choice: either he helps Early hunt down River, or Early will kill Simon and then go back to the engine room where he has Kaylee tied up and then rape and kill her.
- In Merlin, it didn't take long for Morgana to pick up on Arthur's devotion to Guinevere and use it to her own advantage on at least two occasions: "The Castle of Fyrien" and "Queen of Hearts". The latest footage from season four suggests that Arthur's enemies aren't done exploiting this weakness.
- Once Upon a Time season 1 shows Mr. Gold rigging the sheriff's election by playing on Emma's need to show her son Henry that she is an Ideal Hero.
- In Robin Hood, Marian attempts to use Guy's genuine feelings for her to get information about the Sheriff's evil schemes so that she can pass it on to Robin. It works less often than the shippers would have you believe, and it ultimately costs her her life.
- However, one notable instance is when both Marian and Robin acknowledge Guy's weakness for Marian by executing a perfect Decoy Damsel ploy in order for them to escape a tight situation. Guy falls for it hook, line and sinker.
- Kivas Fajo uses this against Data in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Most Toys", while Data has a disruptor weapon pointed at him, convinced that Data will not fire it because he's programmed with a "fundamental respect for all life, and an inhibition against harming living beings". Subverted in that Data does actually prepare to shoot, reaching the cold, but logical conclusion that Fajo is an active threat to the life and health of other living beings, so killing him would save more lives in the long run, and would have done so if he hadn't been beamed out of there in the nick of time. He then tells a near-lie to his commanding officer about it; he suggests that the disruptor may have discharged due to the transport. He never says that this is what happened, only that it is a possible explanation. Of course, this is only after Fajo had successfully used this against Data to get him to sit in his assigned chair by, ironically, threatening to kill the aforementioned Varria if he didn't comply, on the same hunch that Data's "fundamental respect for all life" wouldn't even let him allow someone to die, through his inaction. In case the below quote doesn't make it obvious, it's Fajo's killing of Varria at the end of the episode that prompts the subversion.Fajo: If only you could feel rage over Varria's death... If only you could feel the need for revenge, then maybe you could fire. But you're... just an android. You can't feel anything, can you? It's just another interesting, intellectual puzzle for you — another of life's curiosities.
- By its very nature, Survivor runs on this trope. For example, "Puppetmaster" Russell Hantz: great at the mechanics, horrible at the core. He had absolutely no idea just how bad he was at that last part. But Natalie White did, and guess what happened.
- In Warehouse 13 when Sykes puts Myka in the Chess lock chair to make HG give the right answer ... if HG fails 3 times, the one person she cares about will die.
- Omar Little of The Wire is a Karmic Thief who only targets drug dealers and other criminals for his robberies. In order to do this successfully and keep doing it (and he's been doing it for a long time), he relies on painstaking surveillance of his targets that allows him to learn their tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses, which he then takes advantage of. For example, in his attempt to assassinate Avon Barksdale (a drug kingpin who goes beyond Properly Paranoid), Omar knows that Avon will never use either a landline or cell phone from within his base of operations, as Avon doesn't want to risk using a phone that may be bugged. So Omar engineers a situation where Avon needs to use a phone and goes outside to use a payphone... leaving Avon out in the open without any bodyguards and Omar coming at him from behind to finish Avon off.
- Omar does it again in season 2 when he finds out that Brother Mouzone's bodyguard Lamar likes dogs, so he gets Kimmy and Tasha to distract him with one so he can try and kill Mouzone.
