Take A Third Option - Television Tropes & Idioms

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."

— Joshua, War Games

Batman: I've made my choice... none of the above!

D.A.V.E.: How very predictable. I anticipated you would try to create a third, more favourable option.

— The Batman, "Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind"

Sometimes a hero faces an agonizing decision where the apparent two choices are terrible, such as a Friend Or Idol Decision or a Sadistic Choice.

However, sometimes the hero can respond with, "I don't like those choices, I'm taking a third option!" It is usually something completely unorthodox or seemingly suicidal. Yet this typically turns out to be the best choice after all, and the day is saved completely.

Note that this will usually either be incredibly awesome, if the scriptwriters are clever, or incredibly stupid, if they're not. Deciding which examples are which is an exercise left to the reader.

This can be the hidden solution to a Secret Test Of Character. It's also one way to resolve a Debate And Switch and the only one of Cutting The Knot. If done poorly, it may fall victim to the Golden Mean Fallacy. Sometimes it's triggered by Heads Tails Edge. When the options are different sides in a conflict, taking a third option may lead to becoming Omnicidal Neutral.

Incidentally, this is how to deal with a Xanatos Gambit. A true Magnificent Bastard will have anticipated that, though.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

In Naruto, when Naruto faces Sasuke again he has two choices. He must kill Sasuke, or let Sasuke kill him. He decides on a third choice: fight Sasuke and have both of them die. He's even perfectly fine with dying before he achieves his dream of becoming Hokage. His words were along the lines of "What good is becoming Hokage if I can't save one friend?"
- In essence, this would also derail Madara's plans, as he needs the Kyuubi to help pull it off.
While he rarely lets enemies limit his freedom to just two options, the Magnificent Bastard Lelouch Lamperouge in Code Geass constantly turns the tide of seemingly lost engagements by doing what nobody would expect of him, i.e. always taking the hidden "third" option.
- A specific example of this came up in season 2, episode 8: With the re-creation of the Special Administrative Zone, Lelouch was stuck between several undesirable choices - abandon being Zero, get exiled from Japan, or start another battle that would give Britannia the excuse to come down on Japan even harder. The third option or maybe fourth: Trick the Britannians using a Literal Genie-type definition of Zero, then get a million of his supporters to dress in Zero costumes so that, rather than be exiled alone, he's free to take his army and the battle to Britannia.
  - Lelouch is made of Crazy Awesome, if you haven't noticed already.
The ending of Darker Than Black leaves Hei with the choice whether to envelop Hell's Gate — and Japan with it — in his quantum powers, allowing the Contractors to exist without fear of interference but isolating Japan from the rest of the world (and possibly killing off every non-contractor inside), or do nothing and let the humans destroy Hell's Gate, killing off the other Contractors and returning the world to normal; this choice is Hei effectively choosing whether to be a Contractor or a human. He decides to pick 'both'; his personae, combined, ruin the weapon intended to destroy Hell's Gate. This breaks the masquerade in the process and leads to an open human/Contractor coexistence.
Allegedly present in an episode of Trigun involving two lovers on the run from a slaver caravan. Said caravan is en route to a fortified city which will only grant entrance to travelers with a special key, which happens to be tattooed on one of the runaways' arm. The protagonists are faced with two options: help the couple elope, thereby stranding the caravan outside the city and condemning its inhabitants to slow death by starvation, or return them to the caravan, forcing them into a life of slaving and/or slavery. Instead, Vash fakes the runaways' deaths, thus allowing them to live free and sparing the caravan from responsibility for losing the key - nobody is going to blame them for the Six Million Double Dollar Man's actions. The trope is explicitly claimed in Nicholas Wolfwood's closing monologue: "All along I thought there had to be a sacrifice, but there was another answer: Vash the Stampede".
- In a later episode, in response to a nasty Hostage Situation that is clearly a trap for all concerned, Wolfwood initially favors rushing in as the only course of action that will leave any of them alive. However, he adds...
  Wolfwood: I know a guy who whines and cries until he finds a way to save everyone. A man who takes a stand, though it scars him from head to toe. And he's right here.
- This is in fact Vash's standard policy in a hostile situation - try to find a way to let everybody live. At one point he suffers a Heroic BSOD when he can't figure out how to save everybody in time and is forced to kill the bad guy before he can harm anybody else. When he finally snaps out of the Heroic BSOD he promises that next time he'll find the third option.
Examined as the subject of ⅓'s episode of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, though focusing on everyday third options. You know, the ones where you cannot make up your mind in a choice between two desirable options, and ends up choosing a third, undisirable option instead, and then ends up regretting it later on... Everyone together now: I'M IN DESPAIR!! BEING TROUBLED WITH CHOOSING SOMETHING AND ENDING UP SELECTING A THIRD OPTION HAS LEFT ME IN DESPAIR!!
WhileTengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, is fond of the heroes choosing difficult options, Episode 26 has a moment when the Anti-Spiral re-explains the consequences of using the Spiral power, then asks Simon if he is willing to destroy the universe for a "fleeting emotion." Simon grips his controls, glares through his star-glasses and declares he will save them both: the girl and the universe. Then he destroys the enemy by blasting through space and time.
- This might be considered the defining trope of the series.
This was a common tactic of Gon, the Kid Hero of Hunter X Hunter. In particular, in the beginning, the three heroes find that Only Smart People May Pass through town on their way to the Hunter Exam, in the form of a purely hypothetical Sadistic Choice that must be answered immediately with an "A" or "B" response. The two Kid Heroes figure out, by carefully examining the rules for loopholes and using their Super Senses to hear someone that got a "right" answer screaming in the distance, that silence is the real right answer, as no such decision should be taken so lightly. They then have to explain this to The Watson, who only passed because his moral outrage initially stunned him into silence for the duration of the time limit - outrage because no such decision should be taken so lightly. Later, in one of the official rounds of the tourna- I'm sorry, I mean Exam, this trope is played much more straight. Having picked up another hero and a by-then-revealed Lovable Traitor, and progressing down a timed dungeon of trials on a strictly all-or-none basis, they are told they must choose between leaving two people behind (presumably the Lovable Traitor and one Nakama) and take the short path to victory, or all run out of time together taking the long path. Gon, being The Messiah, refuses either, and since the doors are right next to each-other, he gets them to open the door to the long path, and work together with the Lovable Traitor to dig through the wall to the short path.
In Rave Master, the main character had to choose between killing his girlfriend or dooming the whole of time to destruction at the hands of her out-of-control powers. Haru instead elects to Take A Third Option, sealing Ellie's powers to stop the threat and spare her life; his Well Intentioned Extremist opponent, having failed to consider such an alternative due to his eagerness to Shoot The Dog, is broken down in defeat. This trope also played a part in a Prophecy Twist that foresaw the scenario, but lacking appropriate context, implied that Haru really did Shoot The Dog.
Gash in Gash Bell is given the choice of either saving a friend and dooming the rest of the world or letting the friend die and save the world from the threat. Of course, he takes the third option of first saving his friend, then the world.
In Cowboy Bebop, Spike is given the choice of surrendering or watching a mook put a bullet in Faye's head. Considering Spike is known to be a gunslinger of godlike ability, and that he's pointing a gun straight at said mook's head, you'd think they'd have foreseen his taking the third option...
Near the end of Case 6 of Ghost Hunt, the main cast finds out that the haunting is being caused by a a curse that the students of a school unknowingly put on the vice-principal. There are only two ways to end the haunting: allow the curse to complete, thus killing the VP, or turn the curse back on the students, possibly killing all of them in the process. At first it seems like Naru is going to take the latter of those two options, but then he takes a third option: he has Lin create effigies of all of the students, and those effigies are destroyed when the curse 'turns back on the students'.
In Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Earth is caught up in an inter-galactic war. Tylor is put in command of the whole fleet, ready for the big face-off with the approaching enemy fleet. All-out conflict seems inevitable, and no-one is sure whom will come out the victor. When the time comes, he gives one order - "Full speed ahead". The enemy commander, Dom, who's Tylor's Worthy Opponent, gives the same order. Members of both sides are screaming at them to order the attack, all while the ships get closer and closer to each other. Their respective flagships get close enough for them to physically see each other, and Tylor goes to the window. Standing there, he sticks out his hand, as if to give the order to attack, and Dom does likewise. Gun batteries are readied. The tension is unbearable. Then Tylor slowly and deliberately salutes the enemy commander, who, seeing his plan, returns and holds the salute until their fleets pass harmlessly by. War averted, both sides win.
Al of Fullmetal Alchemist does this when Kimblee asks him which option he and Edward will choose: getting their original bodies back or saving the world? Al asks why they can't do both, and goes on to explain that striving for what shouldn't be possible is the road to progress. Kimblee turns right around and deconstructs the trope by suggesting that, if the third option exists, there must then be a fourth option: they fail in both their goals.
In Mahou Sensei Negima, Setsuna is forced by Evangeline in a Secret Test Of Character to either be a cold, limitless swordswoman to better serve her princess Konoka or take her happiness beside the girl and live her life in peace without protecting anything. She choose to have both.
- This comes up again in one of the most recent chapters, post 250, where Setsuna having lost, more or less, to the crazy swordswoman who's got a crush on her, believes she may actually have to give up on happiness, or leave protecting Konoka to others. she fails to notice, and it fails to interrupt her inner conflict, when a weapon comes flying out of a nearby fight. she slices with weapon in half without even breaking stride, leaving dear Konoka standing in awe. Konoka then proceeds to berate her, convinces her to make up her mind, and then we finally get the kiss we've all been waiting for. well, most fans have been waiting for...
In Gundam Wing, Heero Yuy given the choice to either give Wing Gundam to his enemies or have them slaughter everyone in the colonies. What does he do? He calmly steps out of the cockpit, says his mission in life is over and pushes the self-destruction button, destroying his Gundam and almost killing himself in the process.
Incredible that Busou Renkin hasn't been mentioned, with the tendency of Kazuki, the main character to always choose a third option, even actually calling them out loud while doing so in certain occasions. The series also cruelly mocks this by revealing Kazuki is really using a Black Kakugane and is actually Victor The Third. Yeah. The Third. Get it?
In Bleach, Zangetsu asks Ichigo: "Do you want to fight? Or do you want to live?" Ichigo's answer to that is "I want to win!".
In Buso Renkin, Kazuki is faced with the choice to either use the white kakugane on himself and save his own life, or use the white kakugane on Victor and save the world. With Papillon's help he comes up with a third option of simply making another white kakugane and saving them both, but of course the white kakugane doesn't work entirely on Victor. So obviously he comes up with the fourth option of sending them both to the moon and supposedly killing both of them.
In the "Land of Adults" chapter of Kinos Journey, a little girl (a younger Kino) is given the choice between death and a brain surgery that will render her a cheerful slave to her job. Hermes offers her a third option: escape and become a traveler.
Subverted in the original Yu-Gi-Oh!. Crazy Prepared Dark Malik sets up the Yugi v/s Brainwashed And Crazy!Jounochi duel in such a way that there can't be a third option to take. If one wins, the other dies by being thrown into the sea with his feet cuffed so he'll drown. If one tries to forfeit to help the other, both will die. If someone else tries to interfere from the outside? A girl ( Anzu) taken hostage and strapped to a seat near to the arena will be crushed to death by a HUGE metal box dangling over her head. How did this end up? Yugi debrainwashes Jounochi and sets himself to die. Jounouchi manages to save Yugi and sets himself to die. Either Shizuka (in the anime) or Kaiba (in the manga) rescue him. Oh, and Kaiba saves Anzu right before Jounouchi almost perishes.
- The video game adaption adds a simple option: Draw.
- Played more straight in the final duel between Yugi and Yami Marik, where Yami Marik sets up a dark game where the winner would lose the soul of their host; however, unbeknownst to everyone but Yami Marik, Yami Marik could live without his host persona. This is foiled when Marik gains the spiritual strength to switch places with Yami Marik, and then surrenders, eliminating the evil personality for good.
Happens in Akagi where Akagi wins a mah jongg game by basically making what would appear to be a stupid, illogical move. When asked to explain himself, he says "I'm not limited by your reasoning".
Sailor Moon will find a way to save everyone, specifically in the anime. Even when every other soldier is captured, she's beaten to a pulp, and the ONLY way to save the world is to give the bad guys what they want, Usagi will use the power of love, the power of friendship, or straight-up luck to save the world and her friends—and usually the bad guy, too.
- Although this is heavily subverted in the Manga - Sailor Cosmos tries to take a third option by traveling to the past in the guise of Chibi-Chibi and convincing her past self to destroy the Galaxy Cauldron and the newborn Eldritch Abomination inside it. This is shot down when Sailor Moon realizes that destroying the cauldron won't actually fix anything - said Abomination would be destroyed, yes, but the scenario would just repeat elsewhere. So no matter what happens, millions will die in a war against an invincible enemy. ...yay?
Prunus Girl: Ambiguously-crossdressing Aikawa puts Maki on the spot about what gender he regards him as by giving Maki a choice of two candies to feed him—to turn him into a boy or girl (respectively) in body and soul. Maki feeds Aikawa both.
Attempted in Shitsurakuen. When Sora rescues Tomoko, Tomoko asks to be released back into slavery as she doesn't trust Sora's protection. Sora thinks about the situation and transfers Tomoko to a male accomplice for safety. The accomplice is actually the Big Bad in disguse. Oops.
At the climax to the "Chapter of Egg" in Princess Tutu, Kraehe has captured Prince Mytho and challenges Tutu to a competition to win the affection of Mytho's feelings of love. What Kraehe is counting on is the fact that if Tutu confesses her love for Mytho, she will disappear. Of course, this is Princess Tutu, the show where the main character routinely uses her magical ballet dancing to accomplish her goals, so no points for guessing what happens next.
In Saint Seiya, a rather beaten up Pegasus Seiya is cornered by Dark Action Girl Ophicus Shaina and Silver Saint Crow Jamian. Problem is, he's holding Saori Kido in his arms and cannot fight directly since they're atop of a cliff and she'll inevitably get hurt. The enemy says: "Either fight us or hand us the girl". What does Seiya do? He asks Saori if she trusts him, she says she does, and then they hug and jump off the cliff together. Since it's late at night, Shaina and her partner cannot go for them; Seiya is unconscious for quite a while, but he manages to buy time for himself and Saori.
Seto No Hanayome has the young mermaid Sun saving an Ordinary High School Student Nagasumi's life, but upon doing so and letting him see a glimpse of her - she broke the code of secrecy between merpeople, and their existence will be revealed to humans. To keep the secret, either Sun or Nagasumi must die... but Sun demands Nagasumi to marry her instead so neither of them will be executed.
In Yu Yu Hakusho, Doctor uses his powers to infect the city with a horrible plague. He informs Yusuke that the plague will disappear if he dies or is knocked unconscious, since he is maintaining it with his powers. Doctor turns out to Feel No Pain, making it pretty much impossible to knock him out. Doctor orders him to choose: break his Thou Shall Not Kill creed, or watch as the innocent people die horribly. Yusuke punches him into the sky, knocking him out of range and unable to maintain the plague.
In Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya, Illya calls out to this trope specifically.

Comic Books

Ratchet in the 80s Transformers comic makes a direct reference:
"Trusting Megatron doesn't seem a particularly wise course of action. And using this opportunity to escape is no alternative either - he still holds my comrades! I must think like a warrior, as Optimus Prime instructed me. I must think of a third option!"
In Lucifer, the titular devil is given two dilemmas in a row, as a ruse in which each choice will insult his hosts and give them an excuse to kill him. He's warned by one of their servants beforehand, and manages to come up with a solution to both of them.
- Also at the end, God presents Elaine Belloc and Lilith two possible outcomes - that he would either destroy the Creation, which is crumbling in his absence, or restore it to as it was. Lucifer interferes and offers a third option: to do nothing - the most difficult thing for an omnipotent being. God accepts, and leaves Elaine to replace him as the power that binds the universe together.
Green Lantern Hal Jordan, in a story arc concerning the Star Sapphire, which had, throughout the arc, taken over both Carol Ferris, his perennial love interest, and Jill "Cowgirl" Pearlman, his current love interest. The Zamarons, who sent the Star in the first place, held them captive and had Hal choose which one to be his mate. In response, Hal kissed one of the Zamaron captors, causing the Star to bond with her, go berserk, and forcing the other Zamarons to take her home to remove the stone.
- Of course, the panel where Hal kisses the Zamaron queen immediately found its way to the Internet with the caption "Hal Jordan Will F* ck Anything", and we're still having fun with that.
- The third option was lampshaded in an earlier story arc where Kyle Rayner met up with a younger Hal Jordan. Kyle let the villain Sinestro go when he saved Hal instead of pursuing the villain. Hal admonished him by saying he let Sinestro trick him into making a choice when all he had to do was cut the ring-generated rope hanging Hal.
Subverted in the conclusion of Final Crisis:Rogue's Revenge when Libra forces Weather Wizard to either pledge allegiance to the Secret Society of Supervillains or watch Libra kill his son. In the end the kid still dies because Inertia gets fed up with the situation and blows him up. Even Libra is dumbfounded after this.
Captain Marvel figures out an appropriate third option between all the superhumans dying and their battle rampaging over the whole world in Kingdom Come. Sadly, he doesn't survive the results.
- Come to that, Captain Marvel basically is a Third Option.
  Superman: And that choice -
  Norman McCay's inner monologue: That choice is too big for me. I'm not a god -
  Superman: (oblivious) - I'm not a man. But you, Billy... you're both.
The Rebels, a futuristic spin-off of Elf Quest, offers this one.
- As well as this in Quest's End.
When Jason Todd (who had been Robin II) came Back From The Dead and went on his Roaring Rampage Of Revenge, he forced Batman to choose between letting Joker die and killing Jason himself. Batman responded by sending a batarang to cut the side of Jason's throat to send him into shock.
Jason: If you won't kill this psychotic piece of filth... I will. You want to stop me? You're going to have to kill me.
Batman: Stop this. Enough. You know I won't—
Jason: All you've got is a headshot. I'm going to blow out his addled, deranged brains out— and if you want to stop it... you're going to have to shoot me. Right in my face. [...] It's him or me. You have to decide.
[Batman sends the batarang. Jason collapses.]
Joker: You got him!! You expert, rooting-tooting, eagle-eyed, goth marskman sonofa*** ! Ya banked that bat-thingie off the pipe!!! Oh, god!! I love it!! You managed to find a way to win... and everybody still loses!! Except me, my dark little pumpkin pies.
In IDW's Transformers, the defeat of Nemesis Prime leads to an entity called the Darkness to start possessing Optimus Prime. Galvatron gives Optimus a choice: throw himself into a sun before the Darkness takes away his free will, or give it to Galvatron. Optimus's choice? Give Galvatron the Darkness and throw him into a sun.
In a recent X Force issue, as Rahne Sinclair lay dying of apparent complications from pregnancy with a half-Asgardian child, her lover Hrimhari begs a boon of his many-times-great-aunt the Death Goddess Hela and was told that if he surrendered his soul to her she would save the life of either his love or their child (never mind the question of how a first-trimester fetus is going to survive the death of it's mother). He agonized over it for a moment, then pointed at the next bed over to indicate the unconscious form of Josh "Elixir" Foley.

Fanfiction

In Kyon: Big Damn Hero:
- Take A Third Option: Haruhi can't unbottle her feelings about the consequences of her powers because it will cause even more strain to others, and she can't ignore it either because she cares about the SOS Brigade. In order to prevent an Heroic BSOD she runs a Memory Gambit on herself so she doesn't destroy the world on an accidental whim.
- What do you do if you are part of an Unwanted Harem but don't want anybody to lose? Tenchi Solution.
In Exoria, Leonore wants Zelda to stay in her safe room during the Valentine invasion and wait for rescue teams to arrive. Zelda wants to find her military and lead them as commander-in-chief, even if it means risking capture. They eventually reach a compromise; Zelda will go to Gerudo to cement an alliance with Ganondorf and command her forces from there.

Film

interstate 60 has many examples of this trope, which is basically the subtext of the movie, until the point in which, iconically, the hero drives his car off the road instead of choosing one of two roads he doesn't want to go down.
In The Matrix, Morpheus is captured by the Agents and Neo has the choice of letting him be forced to reveal all his secrets, which would doom the resistance, or unplugging his body from the interface, which would mean instant death for him. However, Neo refuses to make either choice and decides to go in and rescue Morpheus instead despite the formidable opposition.
- A much better example of this trope, though also a subversion: In Reloaded, Neo is given the choice between entering two doors, each of which will doom the human race in a slightly different way. He makes no attempt to even think of a third option, indicating that his mind is not nearly as free as he believes it to be. (In fact, when one finally presents itself, it's because it rather literally walked up and started punching him.)
In the first Spider-Man film, The Green Goblin forces the hero to decide whether to save Mary Jane or a car full of kids. With great personal effort, and some help from the public, Spider-Man saves both.
- If I recall correctly, saving both wasn't that much more difficult than simply saving the kids; either way, the main problem is that the car is effing heavy (it's actually a streetcar).
In The Cat In The Hat starring Mike Myers, while the kids argue whether to get the dog or not, the Cat claims, "There is a third option...it involves...murder."
- Just proving further that Mike Myers as the Cat in the Hat is high-octane Nightmare fuel.
In Batman Forever, the Riddler forces Bats to choose between his brand-new sidekick or the girl. Using his wits and a few of his many wonderful toys, he's able to save both, defeat both villains (Two-Face flips his last coin), and even secure his secret identity.
- In the Dark Knight Trilogy, this is both subverted and played straight. Batman saves Harvey Dent's life at the cost of Rachel's, since Commissioner Gordon would never make it in time to save her, with the added twist that the Joker purposely gave them the wrong addresses. Later on in the film, the civilians and the prisoners decide against sacrificing the other group in exchange for their lives like the Joker had originally planned.
In Superman: The Movie, Lex Luthor launches two nuclear missiles headed for opposite ends of the country so that Superman can't stop them both. By reversing the flow of time, he manages to do so anyway. This was perhaps not the fastest option, though.
In Who Am I?, Jackie Chan's character is confronted by two thugs on the roof of a building, who give him two choices: "Give us the disk and jump off," said disk being the Mac Guffin of the movie, or "We take the disk and throw you off." Instead, Jackie says, "I like the third choice: I keep the disk and throw you both off." (During the ensuing fight scene, nobody actually gets thrown off.)
Subverted in The Rundown, when Beck first confronts Travis. Beck offers Travis two choices: Option A (come quietly back to LA) or option B ("Pretty much the opposite of A. But I wouldn't recommend that one.") Travis decides to go with Option C, and attempts to beat up Beck and escape; considering that Beck is the hero of the movie, and is played by The Rock, while Travis is played by Stiffler from American Pie, you can guess how that goes. Afterwards, Beck quips, "Like I said, there is no Option C."
In 1408, John Cusack's character is given the option of reliving the past hour forever (an hour he described as "the deepest level of hell"), or "taking advantage of our express check-out service" (read: killing himself.) He ultimately decides to burn down the haunted hotel room with him in it .
Subverted by The Proposition, in which outlaw Charlie Burns is given The Sadistic Choice: find and kill his older brother Arthur, or his younger brother Mikey will hang. He and Arthur attack the jail and rescue Mikey, but because of a meddling Smug Snake, Mikey dies soon after. And then Charlie ends up killing Arthur anyway, but for a different reason.
Spoofed somewhat at the end of the Peter Sellers comedy I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! Faced with the choice of confining-but-stable upper-middle-class marriage or free-spirited-but-superficial hippie life, Sellers' middle-aged hero runs away from his second attempt at marrying his fiance from the former group. When asked by a passerby where he's going, he admits he doesn't know, and he doesn't care. He is determined to find a third option - the one that will bring him happiness.
In Star Trek II, it's not entirely clear whether Kirk is using this or the Dungeon Bypass tactic when he reprograms The Kobayashi Maru into a winnable scenario.
- The film is a heavy deconstruction of Take A Third Option: Kirk has made a career on taking the third option, so when situations finally arise where there quite literally and definitely is no third option, he's completely unprepared.
In a slight subversion in Willow, the main character and two others are asked by a wizard, holding up his hand, which finger contains the power of magic. Each chooses a finger, and the wizard declares that they're all wrong. Later, in private, Willow tells the old man that he had thought of choosing his ''own'' finger, but rejected the idea. The wizard confirms that this was, in fact, the correct answer.
In Snatch, Irish Traveller character Mickey is given two choices: perform in a fixed Forced Prize Fight that he has to lose by knockout in the fourth round, or watch as the gangsters forcing him to do this murder his entire clan. (And just to prove they will, they set fire to his mother's caravan — with her inside.) Instead, they decide on a third option. Mickey and the entire clan bet a shitload of money on Mickey knocking out his opponent, which he does, and before the gangsters can do anything about it the clan kills all the gangsters assassins and the head of the mob as well. Moral of the story: don't fuck with Pikeys.
Choice A - Build a group of batshit crazy terrorists a Jericho missile. Choice B - get your head blown off for not cooperating. Third option - build the most technologically advanced piece of battle armor ever; in a cave! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!. If you're Tony Stark you know which one you're going with.....
Fox Mulder did this in the first The X Files Movie. When he followed the not-so-mysterious government trucks he came to a T-intersection and didn't know wether they went left or right. He then decided to drive straight ahead into some sort of field or some such. Needless to say, being Fox Mulder, he was right.
Subverted in Punisher: War Zone: the villains trap Frank in a Sadistic Choice that basically forces him to kill one hostage to save another. Frank instead elects to Take A Third Option, killing one hostage taker to release his captives, consequently sacrificing the other captive to the other hostage taker. However, since said hostage had already offered his life to Frank beforehand to save the others, Frank essentially made a choice that accomplished the same result, but without the hostage's blood in his hands.
In The Empire Strikes Back, Lando Calrissian is forced into a deal with Vader - he betrays his old friend so Han will be bait for a trap, and afterwards the crew will be safe on Cloud City, and the city itself will then be ignored by the Empire, which will kindly not destroy it. But the deal gets altered repeatedly. So Lando made plans to free the crew of the Falcon and get the citizens to flee, though he could only execute them after Han had been frozen in carbonite. The third option was only partially successful, but things turned out all right in the end. Even Cloud City apparently escaped harm - the Star Wars Expanded Universe tells us that it fell under Imperial control, but never got destroyed(perhaps the gas mines were too profitable), and eventually the New Republic got it back.
- And in Return Of The Jedi Luke has the option of either killing Vader and Palpy or joining them. What does he do? He chooses to die, and in the process inspires his father to save him, killing both Sith in the process and bringing balance to the Force.
In the 1999 movie Wing Commander, Maniac offers Hunter the option of either kicking his ass, or drinking the booze that Maniac brought. Rosie suggests a third option: kickingg Maniac's ass then taking his scotch.
In National Treasure, Nicolas Cage's character is given a choice by the feds; do nothing and go to prison, or help the feds rescue the stolen Declaration of Independence from Sean Bean and still go to prison. Initially, Cage accepts the second option but when the plan goes south, he declares, "Sadusky, I'm still not against you. But I found door #3, and I'm taking it." He then makes his escape via diving in the Hudson river.
"I choose Buzz Lightyear!"
"What? That's not a choice!"
Occurs in the 1948 film The Red Shoes. The main character Vicky is forced to choose between Julian, the man she loves, and dancing ballet, which she considers as important as living. At one point, she has a relationship with him, but keeps it a secret. When they are discovered, things get more complicated and in the end she decides to commit suicide by throwing herself in front of a moving train.
Averted in the documentary 12th & Delaware, about an abortion office that has a similarly-titled anti-abortion office right across the street (the anti-abortionists are counting on the confusion). Apparently the only options a desperate woman has is keeping the baby or aborting it since adoption isn't mentioned.

Literature

Discussed in The Red Pyramid (in a moment of Genre Savviness) when Sadie is asked if she was prepared to loose her father if it meant saving the world.
Sadie (narrating): Of course I new the right answer. The heroine is supposed to refuse to sacrifice her father. Then she boldly goes off and saves her dad AND the world, right?
A significant part of the plot of the Greek mythology parody Ye Gods! by Tom Holt is that the classical hero Jason Derry finds Third Options wherever he looks, interfering with how the gods think his story is supposed to go. A lampshade is hung on this early on, when he is given the very symbolic choice between the Path of Virtue and the Path of Luxury, and a third road appears out of nowhere, marked "Diversion".
William Horwood's novel Skallagrigg describes a computer game that begins with the player's daughter being born with severe disabilities (the game's creator has cerebral palsy). The player is asked whether to let the baby live or die, but both answers are dead ends. The hidden third option, which leads into the rest of the game, is "don't know".
- An older, famous literary example is in the play Nathan the Wise, taken from an even older story in The Decameron. The title character, a Jew, is asked by the Muslim ruler Saladin to determine whether Judaism, Christianity, or Islam is the "true religion". Given that because of anti-apostacy laws he would be executed for giving preference to any of the three, he instead uses the "parable of the rings" to give the non-answer that each religion thinks it's the true one but since no one can know until the day of judgment, people might as well be good to one another.
The ending and one major theme of Catch-22. Yossarian is presented with two options by his commanding officers: promote what they are doing and go home a hero (but betray his friends), or face a court-martial. After first deciding to go home, he sees the immorality of it and decides to take a third option (deserting) and therefore beat the system.
- This is spoofed in the book by the name of the person who inspires him to attempt desertion. His friend was named Orr which sounds the same as the word "or". Literally he is the character who finds another alternative.
A minor example occurs early in Enders Game. In a video game that invents itself as the player moves forward, Ender eventually runs up against a situation called the Giant's Drink: a giant offers Ender's character a choice between two odd-looking drinks. They're both poisoned; no matter which one Ender chooses, he always dies, albeit in a different way each time. Finally, frustrated by the game, Ender climbs up the giant's shirt and kills him by digging into his skull through his eye. It's not the most meaningful decision ever made—certainly not the most meaningful decision Ender makes—but the only reason Ender can continue in the game is because he thinks outside the box. Also, the game is a psych test in disguise, and getting fed up with the Giant and killing him rather than continuing to drink is an allegory for overcoming suicidal tendencies, so Ender is unknowingly passing a major test on the way to the end. (The Drink puzzle only comes up for people who've proven their suicidal tendencies through previous choices, and no one has ever gotten away from it before, leading the developers to freak when the game has to write entire new areas to accommodate how awesome Ender just proved himself to be.)
- The climax of the book is also a kind of Take A Third Option. Ender is facing his last and most difficult challenge at Command School, with only eighty outdated fighters up against a force of thousands and thousands based around a planet. He realizes that the teachers either want him to win fairly, in which case they'll just throw more and more challenges at him when he commands the real fleet, or lose, in which case he'll be sent home, and someone else will have to command the fleet and probably lose for real. So instead, he decides to win unfairly, by using the Dr. Device against the planet, vaporizing the entire enemy fleet and most of his own fighters. Thus, he expects to win but be flunked out anyway for his insane solution. Except, of course, for the twist ending...
Subverted in one of the later Shatnerverse novels when Kirk's, forced to chose between the life of his woman and aiding his current arch-nemesis, goes through an internal monologue explicitly trying to think of a third option and reflecting that there is always a third option. Then he realizes that this time, there isn't.
- ...Until he turns on his archnemesis, his Evil Twin from an evil parallel universe, anyway... But that doesn't happen until the next book.
In Stephen Marley's Spirit Mirror, a dark fantasy story set in ancient China, the Big Bad, Nyak the GameMaster, is a Manipulative Bastard who plays a Xanatos Gambit on the heroine, Chia. Chia knows this and spends much of the book trying to Take A Third Option and avoid playing into Nyak's hands by doing what expects her to. She fails.
In Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, at the end of the second volume the Hero faces a Friend or Idol Decision. She takes the "right" option, the one that wasn't used by the villain (and is the reason he became the villain). It is then revealed that her choice actually releases an evil god and the third book is all about taking a third option.
Toward the end of Wizard's First Rule, the Big Bad Darken Rahl gives Richard a choice: Either help him open the Mac Guffin, allowing him to rule the world and take Kahlan as his queen, or do nothing, in which case Rahl will open one of the boxes and either rule the world anyway or destroy it. In the end, Richard feigns helping him (Rahl believed he was under a spell that would make him tell the truth), and tricks him into killing himself.
One of the Halo novels uses this exact phrase while Captain Keyes is formulating tactics to win an impossible battle ("Yes... he did have a third option").
- He then proceeds to have a Crowning Moment Of Awesome involving ramming a Covenant destroyer to knock out its shields, whilst manouvering so it hits itself with its own plasma torpedoes.
- It has to be said the Keyes third option is more awesome than stated above, as he had his ship SLINGSHOT around a planet at one point, remote-activated a Shiva Nuke he'd dumped near the destroyer so its shields would be knocked out, and THEN trailed the plasma torpedoes into the enemy ship. The ramming was actually a calculated, risky move, that nearly tore Keyes' own ship in HALF. As said by the Schoolmaster himself 'half a degree off course, and the Iriquois would have been torn apart'. In the end, every single bottom deck on Keyes ship was breached, and two meters of solid titanium 'A' armor plating had been abraded right through. Crowning Moment Of Awesome indeed.
  - Used in the games as well. The Flood have been released, and the apparent options are to either let them spread and consume everything in the galaxy, or activate the Halo, wiping out the Flood... along with any living thing large enough to support Flood infection. Cortana comes up with another plan; Chief destroys the Halo, eradicating the Flood and preventing galactic destruction.
Used in Frederic Forsyth's novel The Devil's Alternative, where a Ukrainian terrorist is holding an oil tanker hostage and threatens to dump its contents onto the shores of the Netherlands unless his compatriots are released from a German prison. The allied powers know, however, that if the terrorists are released they will inform the media that they have assassinated the head of the KGB, news of which will cause the breakdown of the Russian political system and lead to a megalomaniac taking over the reigns of power and invading Western Europe. The goodies have the choice, allow massive environmental disruption or face the prospect of a Third World War. The hero comes up with the answer: allow the terrorists to be released for long enough that the oil tanker is released, but poison them with a slow acting poison that will kill them before they can release their news.
The entire premise of the novel The Gripping Hand, which is the sequel to a book (The Mote in God's Eye) in which the human species makes contact with a species that has three hands—two dexterous hands and one strong "gripping" hand, the source of the title. This is exemplified in that the phrase "on the one hand...on the other hand..." is often followed by "on the gripping hand" even though humans can't naturally think that way (having only two hands and all).
- And yet, despite not having three hands, humans always look for the Third Option - to the point where the fatalistic Moties, condemned by their biology to two bad choices, consider us all insane for not understanding and accepting what is and must always be. Their term for humans is "Crazy Eddie", after a character in their folklore who's all about the (often absurd) Third Option.
Anita Blake is notorious for doing this.
Towards the end of Lords of the Bow, the Mongols are apparently faced with a choice of turning back or trying to break through the Great Wall of China and being slaughtered in the process by the Chin army waiting on the other side. Genghis Khan notices that the wall is contiguous with the mountains, and simply sends a portion of his army over the mountains to attack the Chin from behind.
The Soul Drinkers in Warhammer 40000 essentially split this trope between two decisions, refusing to go along with the Imperium, then saying "Screw you" to Chaos. The third option? Hunted rebels.
- Ditto the Sons of Malice, another group of SpaceMarines that were insulted by an Inquisitor, so they ritualistically sacrificed her. So the Imperium hates them, but they hate Chaos, so they just go around picking whatever fights they want. It's important to note that the Sons of Malice had the same color scheme (and in some European releases of the book, the same name) as Malal, a chaos god of self-destructive tendencies.
In the Star Trek Tales From the Captain's Table short story An Easy Fast, the protagonist, out for revenge against the three men who killed him (he got better), found each of them in different ways. The first man had already taken the third option of repentance over death and incarceration, so the protagonist let him be. The second man was still wanted, but had started up a lucrative business. The protagonist chose to have him give his employees a cut of the profits as a third option to either death or incarceration. The final man was condemned to die on another planet, and by fate the protagonist had the say-so to put him to death. The third option (from the first two of killing him or leaving him there to rot)? Give the condemned man his own say-so.
In what amounts to a prose Villain Song, Ellsworth Toohey in The Fountainhead gloats that the contemporary world was fixated on the "choice" between the Nazis and the Communists, two brutal totalitarian ideologies. (The novel was written in the late 1930s when many people believed that freedom and individual rights had been discredited; in the world of The Fountainhead, freedom is the Third Option.)
In the story The Blacklist, Ivan is forced by Gabe to make a Sadistic Choice: Gabe will shoot him and let his fellow assassin Hutley live, or he will detonate the bombs Hutley is strapped to and let Ivan live. What does Ivan do? He kicks his right ankle holster with his left foot, does a jump kick that sends the gun into the air, catches it in midair, and shoots Gabe in the chest.
Practically deconstructed in Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception: the titular Opal has Holly Short's commander held hostage in a Death Trap and is sending an attack at Artemis, and Holly only has time to save one of them. Opal claims that, with good aiming skills, Holly can disable the trap to save her commander quickly. Holly takes that option, but the trap goes off, killing him and making it seem like she killed her own commander. Later, Opal reveals that she lied. Ouch.
In Wizard, the sequel to John Varley's Titan, an applicant for receiving one of Gaea's "miracles" is asked a hypothetical question: A train is coming. A little boy and a little girl are tied to the railroad tracks. You only have time to save one of them. What do you do? ... Gaea eventually reveals that there is a response for mortals, and a response for gods. Mortals save one child and then try to save the other. Gods, though, don't bother saving either of them.
In John C Wright's Fugitives of Chaos, the question of whether to fight Echinda — risking their lives and thereby the universe — or run from her — abandoning people to their deaths — is tabled when Amelia interprets some information and realizes that she can appease her.

Live Action TV

In the Star Trek The Original Series episode ''Patterns of Force," Kirk and Spock are in a situation where a Nazi planet, created by a stupid Federation historian, is about to launch a genocidal invasion on a peaceful planet. One of their allies pleads with them to have the Enterprise to destroy the fleet as a lesser evil than letting the slaughter begin. Kirk balks at this bloody option, wanting to help the Nazi planet get back to normal, as well as protect its potential victims. In the end, Kirk makes the drugged Fuehrer cancel the invasion instead.
- Another Star Trek The Original Series episode, "Operation: Annihilate!" confronts Kirk with a choice between allowing body-snatching parasites to spread further or killing the existing victims (over a million people, including Spock and his own nephew). Kirk specifically tells Spock and McCoy, "I want that third alternative!" They find it, but it's a near thing.
- Another one was Kirk's The Kobayashi Maru. Option one was respond to rescue call and be destroyed, option two was to abandon the Kobayashi Maru, potentially preventing war but leaving the crew and passengers to die. Kirk decided to Take A Third Option and cheat.
In the Star Trek The Next Generation episode "The Emissary," Capt. Picard is told that a sleeper ship of Klingons is about to wake up with standard orders to attack the Federation. Ambassador K'Ehleyr gives only two options: Let them attack with great loss of life, or kill them before they start. However, Picard orders her and Worf to come up with better options, and after considerable difficulty, they do come up with a better solution — Worf and K'Ehleyr dress up as a captain and his first officer and berate the rather surprised Klingons for not thinking first.
In the Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode "The Way of the Warrior", Sisko explicitly states they need a third option. The two available are to betray the Klingons and warn the Cardassians about an invasion, or do nothing, meaning things likely won't stop there. The option Sisko finds is to get measured for a new suit by the resident Cardassian tailor during a briefing, thus "accidentally" allowing him to warn the Cardassians while maintaining officially neutral.
An episode of Malcolm In The Middle revolved around Hal agonising over whether or not to take a neighbour who was in a coma off life support. He eventually took a third option, but we never find out what it was.
- It made sense when he found out the man was a bird lover. And he got everything he needed at Radio Shack. Except for the hat.
In an episode of MacGyver, Mac chases a group of gang members through an abandoned building and suddenly comes across an open door and a staircase, not knowing through where the gang went. He then uses his penknife to open a nearby locked door... only him to fall into a snare trap with a bomb (which turns out to be fake). It was all for the best though, as the gang's apparent military training coupled with the fact that they knew Mac would go through the locked door allows him to, with help, deduce the gang's ringleader's identity: (his police chief friend, who is also a former Marine).
The sketch show Almost Live!, parodies this with the sketch "You Make the Call" (which was recycled for the show Haywire). Someone would have two choices, such as whether to run a red light and risk either a ticket or being late for work again. The third option was to just take a bazooka to the traffic light.
Used directly or indirectly in several episodes of Stargate SG-1, such as "Urgo" (SG-1 can live with the annoying Urgo for the rest of their lives, or have him removed from their minds, effectively "killing" him) and "Zero Hour" (Turn Camulus over to Ba'al or SG-1 will be killed). Semi-lampshaded in the episode "Fail Safe", in which the presented third option is so outrageous that Col. O'Neill requests a fourth option.
- A better example would be "Moebius". SG-1's ship is discovered by the Jaffa in ancient Egypt. They can attempt to attack the Jaffa but then alter history, or they could just give up and spend their lives trapped in the past (with the added headache of having to live under Ra's rule). It's Daniel Jackson who comes up with a brilliant third option of burying the thing they came for so that they wouldn't have to go back in time to begin with. There's a reason he was the Smart Guy.
- There's also "1969", where O'Neill tries to invoke this trope:
  O'Neill: Or?
  Carter: I can't think of an "or" at the moment, sir.
  O'Neill: Major; where there's a will there's an "or".
Averted in season 2 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Buffy finds herself facing a choice between killing Angel or allowing a demon to destroy the world. This is the sort of situation that just screams for Taking A Third Option... but Buffy doesn't.
- Well, the third option was preventing Angel from unsealing the demon in the first place; Buffy and Willow just didn't pull it off in time.
- Though the end of season 5 is a straight example - given the choice of her sister killing herself or destroying the world, Buffy chooses instead to kill herself, since it's "Summers blood" that will seal the world-eating rift. Of course, she gets better.
In The Tenth Kingdom, a frog guards the exit to the dungeons, and warns the party that one way is the way out, and the other is a painful death. The heroes are given one question, with the caveat that the frog always lies. Tony frustrated with the tropes of Fairy Tale World, hurls the frog through one of the doors in a rage. When this kills the frog, they choose the safe exit.
Averted in Only Fools And Horses. Market trader Derek Trotter is caught with a stolen microwave, and threatened with a charge of trafficking in stolen goods if he doesn't reveal the thief. If he won't talk, he and his family will suffer serious legal consequences. However, revealing the thief in exchange for immunity would make him a grass. When Derek agrees to the second option, his family is shocked... until, with full immunity in hand, he writes the name of the thief: 'Derek Trotter'
In the conclusion of the main story arc of Babylon Five, Captain Sheridan is asked to choose between Vorlons and the Shadows. He tells both to "get the hell out of his galaxy" instead.
- When Delenn is facing flak from other Minbari for her choice to marry Sheridan on racial purity grounds, Delenn goes on a vision quest which eventually causes her to realize that she is descended from Valen (read: Commander Sinclair, a human turned Minbari). She threatened the guy involved that either they will accept her choice, or she will blab how many Minbari are not as pure as they thought they were, something that would throw Minbari society into chaos. Just before Delenn storms out, he offers a third option: invoking an old Minbari tradition hailing from the bad old days when they still killed each other: that someone from the each of the clans would marry each other after the fighting stopped, as a symbol to help rebuild.
Paul McDermott of Good News Week, on the controversy over whether the New Millennium would start in 2000 or 2001:

"Thankfully, there's always the Australian solution: We start drinking on the 31st of December 1999, and we finish on the 1st of January 2001!"

In the episode "Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk", Monk is given a choice: Hide in a Porta-John or a dumpster. His answer? "I choose death!"
Subverted in Doctor Who, The Beast Below. While two of the Doctor's options are horrendous (Kill everyone onboard or let the Space Whale suffer for eternity), his third option is equally horrible (Lobotomise the whale). Lucky for us, Amy's Crowning Moment Of Awesome comes when she notices that the whale is actually doing this voluntarily. She presses the "Abdicate" button stopping the whales torture and leaving it free to escape...and the ship actually goes FASTER. Effectively taking a fourth option. Five bucks, the Doctor is probably feeling very humiliated.
- Technically speaking, it's one of the original two options, but with unexpected consequences, since it seemed to have not occurred to anyone else that the Space Whale might have wanted to help the humans and that torturing it to gain it's compliance was completely unnecessary. But yes, humiliation galore, no doubt.
- In the Episode "Amy's Choice", the "Dream Lord" forces the Doctor, his companion, and his companion's boyfriend to pick which of two worlds was reality. They were both dreams.

Radio

Adventures In Odyssey has an episode where Connie becomes the valedictorian. One of the things she has to do on stage however is say a prayer. So the principal of the college and her tutor let her write a prayer, only to find it makes references to Jesus which offends other members of the faculty. So the principal says she should pray the college's "acceptable" prayer. He adds that if she doesn't pray the "accpetable" prayer he'll stop her during her prayer and get her in more trouble. However, her tutor says if she wants to say her own prayer, she (and some other faculty members) will support her. On the day itself Connie makes the decision to...not pray at all!
- Cue the Slow Doxology.

Video Games

In The Curse of Monkey Island, Guybrush Threepwood is asked, while challenging a pirate to a duel, to "Choose your weapon," and is presented with a case full of pistols. No matter the weapon he chooses, he loses the duel. If the player closes the case, a banjo is revealed to be behind it. The correct option is to choose duelling with banjos.
- Doubly played with, in fact, as the pirate proves to be an exceptional banjoist. Instead of admitting defeat or being an even better player, Guybrush has to defeat him by picking up one of the aforementioned pistols and shooting the banjo, thus proving himself to be sneaky and dishonourable enough to be a pirate captain.
In Myst, you're presented at the start with two brothers trapped in books, each accusing the other of destroying their father's books and tricking him into imprisoning them both. One brother, Achenar, additionally claims that his brother Sirrus killed their father, while Sirrus merely says that he wandered off and was never seen again. Throughout the game, you collect pages that allow you to hear more of the brothers' stories. In the end, you're confronted with the choice between freeing Sirrus or Achenar. The correct answer: They were both in on it, and you shouldn't free either of them or you'll be trapped yourself. Instead, you have to use the green book which both brothers warned you against, freeing their father to destroy the red and blue books, keeping them trapped forever.
- The whole series has many problems like this (as well as many puzzles in which you just have to solve it the long way). For example, in Riven, Gehn gives you the option of using the Trap Book (which he thinks is a Linking Book that will take him home), or of refusing, which will get you killed if you do it too many times. The solution is to voluntarily use the book and trap yourself, which will convince Gehn to use it as well, thereby taking your place in the Trap and freeing you.)
- In Myst 3: Exile, once you've finally caught up with Saavedro and gotten the Releeshan book back, you can either leave him imprisoned, or free him to come and take his revenge on you. Letting him go and escaping back to Tomahna doesn't work, because he'll follow you. The solution? Open the outer wall first, letting him see that his civilization is still alive. Then open the inner gate and let him take the transport home.
In Knights of the Old Republic, there is a quest of sorts presented to you on Dantooine by a Twi'lek jedi named Bolook, who is investigating a recent murder. The two suspects, Rickard Lusoff and Handon Guld, must be questioned in order to determine which one actually killed the victim, a farmer named Calder, in addition to corroborating evidence with an information droid. After 4 rounds of questioning, and calling both parties on false testimony and possible motives, you find that they were both guilty, and that Calder was sleeping with Handon's wife and had a business deal with Rickard which went sour. This gets you the more than double the XP of just naming one murderer.Full Details
Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 sees (and deals with the results) of this exchange:
Raziel: You said it yourself, Kain - there are only two sides to your coin.
Kain: Apparently so. But suppose you throw a coin enough times... suppose one day, it lands on its edge.
- The above was due to a choice Kain had to make. If he killed himself, it would seemingly restore the pillars of Nosgoth, but that would finish off the vampires. If he didn't kill himself, then the vampires would remain due to his presence, but Nosgoth would remain. At first it seems he chose option two out of a desire to survive. It turns out that the entire situation was crafted carefully by Moebius and his Elder God. If he killed himself, Nosgoth would be doomed anyway because the vampires kept the pillars preserved. He actually took a third option. In a convoluted (but awesome) scenario he purified himself so he could fulfill his destiny as the Scion of Balance, making the pillars unecessary.
Mass Effect's idealism-or-cynicism Karma Meter typically offers two solutions to any given problem. If the player has put enough points into the Charm or Intimidate skills, he or she can occasionally Take A Third Option involving either diplomacy or outright threats. It's averted hard by the Virmire mission, however: the player must choose which of two party members to save, and the character not chosen will die. There is no third option.
- There is also no third option in the Romance Sidequest; the player can angle for a threesome, but this simply results in one of them being disgusted with you and leaving you with the other.
- There is no third option in Bring Down The Sky, either. The player can either let the Colony Dropping terrorist go or let all the miners die. No third option, and a tough fight either way.
- In Mass Effect 2, Tali's loyalty mission involves being her being accused of treason. While investigating a quarian science ship, Shepard finds evidence that Tali's father was conducting dangerous experiments on the geth. Shepard can not tell the quarians about this, which is what Tali wants. This results in Tali's exile, but earns her loyalty. Shepard can also reveal the evidence, which gets Tali acquitted but loses her loyalty. Or Shepard can call out the quarian admirals for their politicking and shame them into acquitting Tali while still earning her loyalty.
  - Furthermore, while not spelled out exactly, her recruitment mission also features a notable third option. Shepard must close the distance on an incredibly powerful foe; two paths can be taken. One of them has plenty of cover from the shield-damagingly hot sunlight, but exposes you to soldiers. The latter is soldier free and has a nice sniper post at the end, but is flooded by sunlight. Alternative, the M-920 Caine can simply nuke the bastard to oblivion from long range, at no risk to yourself.
  - Or if you're feeling ballsy, go Vanguard Charge and cross the entire field to go straight at the Colossus. Then, use the Arc Projector to fry the Collossus and several surrounding Geth.
Played straight in Neverwinter Nights. When you reach the village of Charwood, you are told to affix the blame for a centuries-old massacre. It turns out that the murderer was neither of the adversaries responsible for half the events, but rather the demon that was manipulating them both.
- On the other hand, exposing the demon leaves you in another dilemma; you can either let a demon lord go free and bag yourself a magical trinket, or doom an entire town of people to eternity in amnesia and madness in order to trap the balor. Great, huh?
  - Even after revealing the demon lord you can still decide if one off the former suspects is guilty. One of the suspects could have chosen not to execute the massacre and abandoning his plan with eternal undead. The overall outcome is more positive.
An infamous moment in video game history, in Final Fantasy VIII: when you are trying to acquire the Guardian Force Bahamut, you are asked several questions to test your character. The... worst gag - or however you like to consider it - is the answer to the third question is an invisible third answer, which is only seen when you've decided on it. Really great, Square...
- However, it's entirely in character for Squall: presented with two options with which to explain what he fights for, he declares that they are both wrong (only after trying them both), and that what he fights for is not something so simplistic. Still really annoying when you have to fight two very tough enemies to get to that point, and then Bahamut himself immediately after, with no chance to heal.
- The third option is also a big plot point in Final Fantasy X: Between letting Sin continue it's endless rampage against Spira and sacrificing Yuna (and probably Tidus as well) in order to destroy it, only for it to inevitably come back anyway. The third option in this case was to take advantage of Sin's (i.e. Jecht's) weakness to the Hymn of the Fayth, then use the airship to get inside it, destroy it (him) from the inside, and use regular aeons and good old-fashioned beatdown to destroy Yu Yevon (who created and controlled Sin) before he could recover. This was probably Auron's plan to begin with; he probably just let Tidus and the others figure it out on their own.
In Deus Ex early on in the game you are instructed by your CO to kill the unarmed leader of a group of terrorist/freedom fighters who has already surrendered or else she will kill him for you and report you for insubordination (which she will do if you try to leave or even so much as talk to him for too long). An unsaid, but also perfectly viable option, is to just kill her instead, and claim she got killed in the crossfire. It is difficult to do without killing the terrorist leader anyway because your CO explodes when you kill her.
- It's possible: when you enter the terrorist's bedroom, put a LAM or two on the wall. After the first chunk of dialogue, when you hear Anna Navarre's footsteps, run to the bathroom, so you won't die too. When she's blown up, you can continue your conversation with Lebedev - it's worth it, for he has some crucial and interesting information.
Aigis of Persona 3 FES has to make a tough choice - leave behind the memories of the person she loved, or go back in time to save him (which would doom humanity or get them stuck in their dormitory forever). Instead she decides to find out how exactly the Main Character performed his miracle and if there's a way to save him using the last remaining Door of Time, which allows them to use the Key of Time for something else, like leaving the dorm.
In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Micaiah at one point has to kill her king to save her country, at the king's request. The player originally has the choice to carry out the order or pass the duty to someone else, but after the first playthrough, a third option appears where she refuses to let him die.
In Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney (the second game, Justice for All), Phoenix at one point must decide whether to save Maya from an assassin while condemning an innocent woman, or convict his guilty client but let Maya die. In the end, he manages to convince the assassin to drop his contract by revealing that the guilty client had planned to betray him all along; he releases Maya and announces his intention to kill the treacherous client next, who is scared for his life to the point that he demands a guilty verdict.
- Subverted at the very end, though: after that reveal, you must still either accuse your client of being guilty or defend him to the end, asking for a "not guilty" verdict. The outcome is the same.
In the final puzzle of Star Trek: A Final Unity, Picard is forced to choose between using a superweapon to annihilate a Borg Fleet, or simply using it to nonviolently halt their invasion. Naturally, the correct choice is None of the Above.
In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, after playing through the game as Riku, Riku meets up with King Mickey, who suggests that he keep his dark powers, saying something to the effect of, "You chose a road I never even thought of; I want to see where that road leads." Later, when asked whether he'll take the road to light or the one to darkness, he takes the one in the middle... "the road to dawn."
In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, when the titular Bros. try to access the Star Shrine, the Sprite gives a test of purity. Examining Mario's spirit, the Sprite determines that he is pure enough (and mildly overweight, at that), but Luigi's past is dark enough (illiciting some horrified mutterings from the Sprite) to bar him from entering, and he must hit a special block in order to get in. After completing the puzzle to get the block to the door, Luigi is unable to hit it, and the Sprite asks who was responsible, giving you three choices: 1)Mario, 2)The Babies, 3)Luigi the correct answer is 4) After taking the test, the Sprite is dissatisfied with Luigi's dishonesty and agrees to only let Mario and the babies in, ignoring the point-out that he only gave three answers, none of which were correct. Mario debates on Luigi's behalf to the outraged Sprite, and his selflessness is apparently strong enough for both of them. He then reveals that the whole event was a test in and of itself, and they passed with flying colours.
The Wii, and to a smaller extent the DS, is Nintendo's third option. Following the relative failure of the Game Cube, Nintendo was faced with either continuing the graphics arms race with Sony and Microsoft and continuing to struggle against its kiddy image, or reorganizing as a third-party developer and continuing to struggle against its kiddy image. Nintendo decided to ignore all that, embrace its family friendly nature, and try to redefine the video game market. And it's working BECAUSE it's become the Third Option To Take for non-gamers and former gamers.
- And of course, gamers.
Geneforge 4 has you start off allied with rebels who will kill thousands to overthrow the government, but will let you defect to the other side, which will smash the rebellion and reinstate oppression and servitude. Both refer with distaste to some group known as the "Trakovites," which they're doing their best to stamp out . . .
The Mega-Ten Series has this Trope as a major theme, as the main character has the choice of aligning yourself with Law(Usually represented by the Messians who worship YHWH, a vain dictator who created the world to be his) or Chaos(Usually represented by the Gaians, who think that it's every man for himself, and are usually aided by Lucifer). Neither is the right option however as the Law path has no liberty while the Chaos path results in self destruction. The (arguably) correct path is Balance which supports personal liberties and individuality while not falling in a state of total anarchy. Again this is arguable since the games allow you to choose whichever path you want and treat you as the victor no matter which you chose.
Averted in Advent Rising, where protagonist Gideon is forced to choose whether to help his brother, injured in a spaceship crash, or his fiancÃ©, shot in the leg just moments before, into one of the last escape shuttles off the doomed space station. He can only save one, the other WILL die, as there's not enough time to help both. However, whoever he did choose to save still ends up dying when the Seeker Destroyer crashes into the sea, anyway. The choice ends up affecting the appearance of the final boss, though only cosmetically.
Add in Fallout 3 as part of the Broken Steel Downloadable Content. Rather than sending either Sarah Lyons or you to commit a Senseless Sacrifice at the end, you can send the radiation-immune Super Mutant Fawkes to do so. Before, Fawkes would have rejected your offer.
- The same goes for Charon (a ghoul) or Sergeant RL-3 (a robot), both of whom are also immune to radiation.
In Kingdom Hearts II, the villain Xaldin of Organization XIII has the Beast caught between a Sadistic Choice. He has stolen the Beast's rose, as well as Belle. However, he will let one of them go, at Beast's choice. And there's not a damn thing Beast can do about it. Belle, on the other hand, elbows Xaldin in the side, takes the rose, and runs like hell. Even Sora notes that as Belle's running, she seemed to be having a really good time.
- Of course, if not for Xaldin's Cutscene Incompetence (being a villain sucks), Belle would have never been able to get away and Sora or Beast could have come up with a more realistic third option. Xaldin is one of the hardest bosses in the game and he manages to lose his grip on Belle by getting elbowed. Ugh.
  - Admittedly, he sure as hell wasn't expecting it. The player certainly wasn't, that's for sure.
Twisted Metal: Head-On has one of these in Agent Shepard's ending. The winner of the Twisted Metal Car Fu tournament gets a wish from Literal Genie Big Bad Calypso; typically they get screwed over. Rather than fall for this, Shep decides to just arrest Calypso.
Subverted in Infamous, where despite the myriad of powers Cole has at that point in the game, he either can't think up or doesn't take a Third Option, and chooses either the six doctors or Trish in a Karma Moment. This Karma Moment could count as an Aversion instead though, because Trish dies no matter what you do - if you pick the 'wrong' / Bad Karma choice, the Trish you save turns out to be a decoy and the real Trish was among the six doctors you failed to save.
"I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture."
At the end of Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines, you get demonized by mainstream vampire society and the sole helping hand you have left makes it clear that you're pretty much boned without aligning yourself to one of the various factions you've encountered throughout the game. This means going back to one of two different groups who've been using you as a dupe or a third that only cares about you for the power you could bring to their side. Or you could single-handedly butcher every filthy son a bitch who dared to play you in the first place.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City exemplifies the whole concept of sufficently advanced video games allowing a third option. One mission has you chasing a crazed stalker. The official game guide suggests ramming his car until it explodes or doing a drive-by. It's possible to steal enough cars to create a roadblock and then use the rocket launcher. This is just one of dozens of examples.
In Fate Stay Night, after Saber nearly wipes her magical energy empty with the Excalibur, Shirou is initially faced with two options as to how to restore her energy: 1. transfer his energy to her, which is out of the question due to his poor magic skill. 2. Have her kill humans and steal their energy. Later, however, Rin reveals that there is a third option: have sex with Saber. Too weak as a magus to transfer magic, and too moral to slaughter the lives of innocents, Shirou hesitatingly takes option three.
- Subverted in Heaven's Feel. There is no third option at one point. Either betray your ideals, or lose a person Shirou loves. And there is no third option to redeem one innocent victim.
- Parodied in the fake 'dead-end', on Fate route, where Shirou tells Saber they will fast. Tiger and Illya turn him into a cyborg with gatling guns, and offer him a chance to 'join the Tigers willingly, or be brainwashed and turn into a machine.' His response? Turn on the gatling guns.
For a Rogue-alike, ADOM has an unusual amount of plot, and there are several Third Options available in the game. If you take the quest to look for the village carpenter, you'll find he's become a dangerous Chaos monster, who will attack you on sight. It's kill or be killed ... or you can lead him to the healer Jharod, who will fix his corruption and teach you the Healing skill as a reward. Later on, you'll meet an undead dwarven warrior, who can be defeated by force, or destroyed instantly by pouring holy water on his grave. Later still, you'll run into a dying sage who can't be healed by any normal spells, but he won't move off the stairs to the next level until you talk to him, at which point he dies. The third option is to give him an amulet of life saving. When it comes to the endgame, you can close the Chaos gate and kill all the monsters on the level, preventing it from being reopened ... or destroy the levers so the gate can't be reopened ... but if you've done a variety of difficult tasks, you can go through the gate instead and fight the god of Chaos for a special ending.
Pokemon Platinum. Cyrus tells you that no matter what you do, if you defeat Giratina, the world will end and let him recreate it. Capture it? No good. Beat it in battle? No good. Cynthia tells you (rightly) that it is a trick, but even she says that you have to fight Giratina. Thing is, if you choose Run, Giratina calms down and the rift closes. Yeah, guess Cyrus didn't think that a deity would let a ten year old run when it was pissed off at the adult, Cyrus.
In Wing Commander III, at one point you're given a choice between kissing Rachel or Flint, which would make the one not chosen mad at you (and thus unavailable, leaving you to either fly short a wingman or configure your own ship loadout if you don't want to launch without missiles, respectively). However, you can choose to not kiss either of them, by bypassing the decision scene entirely, and have both still available. Both will be unhappy with you, but only for Flint does that really matter, as lowered morale makes her flying less effective.
Dragon Age gives you a third option at Castle Redcliffe, where the Arl's son Connor has been possessed by a desire demon, torturing the castle denizens and wreaking havoc on the village with frequent attacks from the undead. At first the choices are to kill Connor or sacrifice his mother, Arlessa Isolde, in order for a mage to enter the Fade and slay the demon. But, if you ask about an alternative, you'll be presented with the option of having the mages of the Circle Tower assist in the ritual, sparing both. If you are a mage and choose to enter the Fade yourself, you're also presented with a fourth option by the desire demon herself: Allow her to leave, temporarily relinquishing control over the boy, in exchange for a reward of your choosing.
- The ending also provides a third option. Instead of sacrificing yourself, or a comrade warden, to the Archdemon, you can have Morrigan impregnated, either by a male PC, or Alistair or Loghain. Doing this lets the Archdemon's essence join with the unborn child.
In the end of the first Dino Crisis, Regina must choose between helping a mortally wounded Gail (Regina's commanding officer) apprehend the renegade scientist Dr. Kirk, causing Gail to die in the process; or knock Gail out, forcing him to escape the island without capturing Dr. Kirk. The third option comes when the player chooses to knock out Gail, only to go after Dr. Kirk alone.
The Legend Of Zelda Skyward Sword does this for the graphics. Instead of using cel shading like Wind Waker, or realism like Twilight Princess, Nintendo decided to combine the two to make a cel shaded but somewhat realistic looking adult Link. Many were pleased, but others hated how the style was not either cel shaded or realistic.
In the M MORPG PlaneShift getting killed sends you to the Death Realm, which you have to explore to find the portal leading back to the mortal coil. Your first choice comes when the bridge you're on branches. Right or left? Both paths are dead ends, just keep going straight ahead and drop off the bridge.
In Jade Empire, instead of (Good Ending) healing the water dragon or (Evil Ending) claiming her power for yourself, you can sacrifice yourself and let Master Li win. Your reward for allowing his evil dictatorship? A statue of yourself. Derp.
In the fifth chapter of "Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People," Strong Bad needs some tech support. Unfortunately, the guy on the phone isn't interested in helping and tries to impersonate a voicemail system with multiple responses if Strong Bad says "One," "Two," or "Three." None of the responses are helpful to the player; the way to proceed is for Strong Bad to take a fourth option and say, "Four." This causes the tech support guy to panic and concede defeat.
In the extensive Baldur's Gate (1) NPC mod, there are three romantic suitors for a female PC. Two of them, a knight and a rogue, will go through a series of impressive challenges in the hope of winning the PC's heart, which may well make it very difficult to decide between the two. Since the third opts out due to thinking his chances are hopeless, this makes him an endearing and tempting third option (as evidenced by polls, wherein he is the single most popular choice of either gender.)

Webcomics

Near the end of the "Snowsong" arc of Dominic Deegan, Oracle For Hire, Snowsong turns herself into ice and orders Gregory (to whom she's frozen herself) to make a choice - save her life via magic and give her ice golem time to destroy the city of Barthis, or smash her to pieces and kill her so he can stop the golem. Gregory merely smiles, removes the spells on himself (which turns her back to normal) and uses another set of spells to turn them into a kinetic force powerful enough to shatter the golem on impact.
In Erfworld, Vinny Doombats suggests two options for escaping an enemy trap, after warning Ansom that "You won't like 'em." because they leave the enemy with a free hand to finish off Ansom's siege train. Ansom chooses the third option of taking his chances with the trap and ordering a hunt for the enemy's raiding force.
In Order Of The Stick, the PCs try in #428 to determine which one of three identical-looking skeletons is the real Big Bad, and which are the decoys. They have only one shot at guessing. The answer is: they're all decoys. The fourth (and real) one is currently invisible and flying right next to them on his zombie dragon.
- More stereotypically, in #327 they are confronted with two guardians: one always lies; the other always tells the truth. They both have said which is the "correct" path. The party is about to begin trying to ascertain whom to believe when Haley shoots one. The guards' instinctive reactions to this show who's telling the truth and who isn't.
- The guards have good memories.
- Tragically subverted when Therkla tries to take a third option.
- The pacifist Celia is held captive by the Greysky City Thieves Guild, and Roy is encouraging her to fight back, as in a D&D-esque world, it's kill or be killed. She opts for legal negotiation instead.
In The Adventures Of Dr Mc Ninja, creator Chris Hastings chose a third option in regards to the question of whether or not to include shading in the strips. He hired a colorist.
Comes up more than once in Tales Of The Questor - in the story, the third option often is, literally, "hire a questor".
In its ten year anniversary of The Matrix comic, xkcd manages to screw the red and blue pills and take the third option.
From Darths And Droids #250:
R2D2: What was the third option again?
Parodied in this DMFA guest strip, which presents a standard Good Angel Bad Angel scenario regarding the purchase of an expensive colored pencil set with money earned from donations. By the time it's over, however, both sides agree on her alternative solution: "LARCENY WAS NOT THE ANSWER!"
Tailsteak's website (yes, Tailsteak of One Over Zero fame) has a series of comics called "TQ" (short for "tertium quid", literally "third option" in Latin) in which the titular character, presumably an Author Avatar, steps into a debate between a hippie and a rich businessman to tell them they're both wrong about such-and-such an issue, to the annoyance of both.
Florence is induced to take one, courtesy of Sam.◊
Collar 6- Who does Sixx send into the contest? Herself!!!
Emily spells it out in Spacetrawler.

Web Original

Fatebane frequently chooses a bizarre out-of-box-thinking way of getting out of seemingly impossible situations in Associated Space, to the extent that his companion lampshades this tendency:
"What?" David looked doubtful. "There's a third option? Crazy and daring?"
On the Livejournal community Anthropomorphs Deserve Love Too!, Alienware does this to the Linux system.

Western Animation

Done for humor in the Batman The Animated Series episode "Almost Got 'Im". Harley Quinn captures Catwoman and ties her to a conveyor belt heading for a massive meatgrinder. Batman arrives, and catches Harley, who then taunts that he can either bring her in, or rescue Catwoman, but not both. Batman then... nonchalantly reaches over to the circuit breaker and shuts off the power to the grinder, to which Harley responds, "Good call—Help!"
Played with in Avatar: The Last Airbender, where the extremely aged and hunchbacked King Bumi gives Aang a choice between two equally fearsome looking opponents. Feeling clever, Aang promptly picks Bumi himself, who turns out be one of the most powerful Earthbenders in the world and promptly kicks Aang around the arena like a football. The whole point of this and the other exercises were trying to think outside-the-box, and Bumi made the third option so obvious by saying "choose your opponent" and standing right in front of him that taking the third wasn't really that creative.
- This trope crops up again in the series finale, where Aang is forced to decide whether to let Ozai live and carry out his genocide on the Earth Kingdom, or kill him outright. Aang manages to get around this by learning how to Spiritbend by getting Touched By Vorlons and permanently disabling Ozai's ability fo firebend.
Nearly subverted, certainly lampshaded in The Batman, where D.A.V.E., a robot programmed as "Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind", forces Batman to choose between Alfred's life and his secret identity. Batman tries to free Alfred through different means, only for D.A.V.E. to slam him against the wall of the Batcave, shouting that he knew he would try to take a third, more favorable option.
In one episode of South Park, Towelie was faced with either preventing the boys and their new game system from falling into a death trap, or getting high from a joint the evil towel was taunting him with. Towelie's response? "I choose.... BOTH!"
In one episode of Family Guy, Peter and his father-in-law sell Meg some marijuana, creating an implicit choice between the money and the pot, so Mr. Pewterschmidt hits Meg over the head and declares "now we have the money and the pot."
In the X-Men Animated Series, Bishop goes back in time to stop Apocalypse from causing a global plague. But in Cable's time (further into the future), Cable realizes that if Bishop saves the present, it would doom his future. The plague would allow humanity to develop antibodies that would help the people in Cable's time survive further plagues. So basically, if Cable wants to save his people, he has to help Apocalypse win. His third option? Expose Wolverine to the virus so his healing powers would create antibodies to counter the virus, thus giving it a cure. This allows Cable to save the future and the present.
Utilized (rather unfairly from a viewer's POV) in the short-lived Dragon's Lair cartoon. The show would often go into commercial breaks with Dirk facing an A or B choice. In the original video game, one would mean safe passage the other, instant, hideous death. In the cartoon, both meant death. But, as the narration would smugly inform us, "Dirk saw there was a better way".
Used in the Powerpuff Girls episode "Three Girls and a Monster", when Blossom and Buttercup are having an argument over how best to beat the Monster Of The Week, with Bubbles stuck in the middle. Well-calculated attacks don't seem to touch it, and trying to beat the crap out of it doesn't work - it doesn't even seem to leave a scratch - so what does Bubbles finally do to beat it? Politely ask it to leave. And it WORKS.
- Also used in "Not so Awesome Blossom" where Blossom has to decide between attacking Mojo and risk having the Professor fall to his death or accept him as her ruler She ends up Taking A Third Option in an unexpected way.
The first Futurama movie has the scammer aliens give the heroes and their fleet of ships the option to either surrender unconditionally, or be destroyed. So Bender shoots a doomsday device at them.

Nudar: You have two choices: unconditional surrender...

Leela: Never!

Nudar: Or total annihilation.

Leela: Also never!

Nudar: You have thirty seconds to decide.

Leela: NEVER!!!!

In the Space Ghost episode, "Zorak," Zorak kidnaps Space Ghost's teen sidekicks and forces him to fight his giant hornets without his power bands, or his sidekicks will die. After fighting the wasps for a few minutes, Space Ghost puts his power bands back on and defeats the hornets, saving his sidekicks shortly after. The third option, if you missed it, was "remember that all your enemies are idiots," or "both" for short.
In a Teen Titans episode, Starfire's pet worm is torn in a decision between his father and Starfire, who raised him with love. Rather than joining either, he takes a third option, and explodes. He gets better.

Real Life

In the 1920s, a British submarine captain in China once faced the Hobson's Choice of either allowing a hijacked river steamer to escape, or allowing the pirates to kill their hostages. He took the third option of sinking the ship. He fired a shot into the waterline, causing the ship to settle slowly, so that the passengers and crew could easily abandon ship, and in the confusion most of the pirates were killed. Since they had blended with the passengers, it was uncertain how many pirates had escaped and how many innocents had died, but the overall solution worked, and the captain was exonerated.
Something similar happened in the English debates leading up to the Canadian parliamentary election in 2006. While future Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper tore then-PM Paul Martin's corrupt Liberal government to shreds, the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), Jack Layton, took most of his time to remind Canadians that they "always have a third option," and to vote NDP. It backfired spectacularly, making Layton look like a kid in the back of a classroom, jumping up and down and yelling "pick me!" The media backlash was so large, and the third-option catchphrase repeated so often to tarnish Layton's reputation, that it's the closest thing to Memetic Mutation in the political journalism field.
- In Eagleland it's Ralph Nader...just, Ralph Nader.
- However, in the run-up to the 2010 UK General Elections, Nick Clegg repeatedly stressing his own existence went down very well, creating a positive Memetic Mutuation called 'Cleggmania'. Just goes to show it's all in the delivery.
  - Well - it worked out well for the Lib-Dems in the end (so far!), but they actually lost seats in the election.
Siddhārtha Gautama took a third option about 2500 years ago — giving up a life of luxury as a prince and rejecting a life of religious Asceticism to try out what he called the Middle Way, which he would later, as Gautama Buddha, expand into Buddhism.
Though very few people know it is prominent in the religious text, being somewhat more familiar with the Viewers Are Morons version, The Bible has this as an explicit choice; in a metaphor for different ways of going through life, the correct path in life is the middle path, not the right or the left path.
The Operation at Entebbe Airport in 1976. Do you capitulate to the demands of terrorists? Or do you allow them to kill dozens of passengers? You do neither, instead you stack a Hercules cargo plane with the baddest Israeli Special Forces in the country and send them to rescue the hostages in what is still today one of the most daring, most successful, most iconic hostage rescues in history. Generally considered the nation of Israel's third biggest Crowning Moment Of Awesome (behind winning their independence and their victory in the Six Day War).
In the days right before the Roman Civil War, Pompey and the Senate attempted to foist two lose-lose options onto Julius Caesar: return to Rome without his veteran legions in Gaul and be crucified in court, or be declared an enemy of the state. In a case of Refuge In Audacity, Caesar decided to Take A Third Option and marched one legion into Italy proper. Caesar held the initiative for a good part of the war after that.
In general, politicians in a two party system find success in appealing to the moderates as having found a "Third Way." Bill Clinton was known for such positions (something that branded him as a "waffler" early in his term), and which inspired the concept of "Compassionate Conservatism" in the campaign of George W. Bush (something that sort of went out the window after 9/11).
- The political opponents of Tony Blair, one of the politicians to rely on such rhetoric, remarked at the time that he was not the first politician to claim he had found a Third Way between free markets and state control... the slogan "Third Way" was initially used by Benito Mussolini.]]
The Berlin Airlift. After the Soviets blockaded the western-controlled West Berlin, an enclave in East Germany, the only apparent options for supplying the city were to try and force their way past the Soviet blockade, thus giving the USSR grounds to retaliate and potentially start WW 3, or to allow the city to be starved into submission. The chosen solution? Fly in the supplies required by the city's two million plus population. The largest airlift in history followed and it placed the shoe completely on the other foot; the airlift could only be stopped if the Soviets started downing planes.
Fort Sumter. The Union could either send a ship to resupply it, and give the Confederacy an excuse saying they were being attacked to start a war while blaming the Union, or let them all starve. The choice? Warn everyone faaaar in advance that a ship would be sent without weapons solely to resupply the fort, giving the 'blame' for starting the war to the South.
In a way, Libertarianism is an entire Political movement taking the third option. They agree with the Republicans on some issues and they agree with the Democrats on others. Libertarians often claim that they are the real alternative to "economic socialists" (Democrats) and "moral socialists" (Republicans) both of whom are at the opposite end of the "control vs. freedom" spectrum. The party's opponents claim that, in practice, the movement's supposed dedication to abortion rights, drug and prostitution/pornography legalization, gay marriage, religious freedom and an anti-interventionist foreign policy almost always take a back seat to their free-market economic positions, making them often come off as "Ultra-Free Market Republicanism With Better Bloggers", hardly a different option at all. Your Mileage May Vary.
- This can be expanded to any third parties in two-party systems. The NDP in Canada, the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom, the minority parties in Germany, etc.
Fascism and various nationalistic movements are commonly considered "The Third Option" as they merge stances typical for right-wing (natinalism, conservatism) and left-wing (interventionism, syndicalism) parties.
The Non Alligned Movement. Countries like India, Egypt, Tito's Yugoslavia, Indonesia and others chose to join neither the URSS nor USA in the Cold War, making their own alliance instead. This is exactly what the Third World countries originally meant.
Some gamers complain about draconian DRM, since they can only either buy the game, which would allow the unwanted software to run on their computer, or not buy it, which may lead to their non-support for the DRM being misinterpreted as non-support for the game. Instead they Take A Third Option of buying the game and then playing a pirated, DRM-free copy(see Spore.). Some claim that this "proves" to the publisher that people will buy the game with DRM, and that they "need" stronger DRM to hold off piracy, some claim that it proves to the publisher that people won't stand for crap DRM. (There's also a fourth option of just pirating outright.)
The False Dichotomy fallacy is all about this - a problem is presented as having two solutions, when there might be more.
Weekday Vegetarianism. Exactly What It Says On The Tin. From the talk: "I realised that what I was being pitched was a binary solution [...] so I wondered... might there be a third solution?"

Myth & Legend

When Kuchisake-onna asks you if you think she's pretty, especially after she reveals her Glasgow Grin, honesty is just plain suicidal. Telling her she DOES look pretty isn't a good idea either (as "kirei", the word she uses for "pretty", also means "to cut with a knife"). However, you can tell she looks so-so, or give her candy, or throw candy in another direction, or ask her if she thinks you're pretty. Most of these will just confuse her. Also she LOVES candy.
There's an old story about a princess that was forced by an evil witch to marry one of her ugly sons, so they will become king. The princess must make a statement, and if that statement is true, she will marry son A. If it's false, she'll marry son B. After some deliberation, the princess says "I will marry son B". The evil witch is unable to come up with a solution, and lets the princess go free.
There's a fairy tale in which a farmer brags about his clever daughter, and the king agrees to marry her if she can solve a riddle; else the farmer has to pay for his bragging. The riddle is that she must come to his palace to meet him niether during the day nor night, niether naked nor clothed, niether hungry nor fed, niether on foot or with a ride, and niether on the road nor off it. The farmer's daughter arrives at dawn/dusk depending on the story, with a fishnet wrapped around her, having drunk her fill of water, being dragged by a horse on the edge of the road. The king marries her.
- I heard a similar story once where, instead of arriving like that, the daughter simply didn't show.
In the story, The King's Equal, a dying king tells his son that he can't take the throne until he marries a woman who he admits is as beautiful, intelligent, and rich as he is. Eventually, a gorgeous young peasant girl shows up, and the prince says that she's "the most beautiful creature [he's] ever seen." She doesn't want anything because she has her friends, while he wants the crown. And she knows something he doesn't -he's very lonely. The prince admits that she's his equal... and the woman announces that, in fact, he's just admitted that she's better than him in every way, and sends him off to care for her goats for a year while she gets the kingdom back in order. He comes back a better person and they get married.
A 14-year-old Lebanese girl named Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar Rayès was stuck between two possible Arranged Marriages. Her stepmother said she should marry her brother (aka the kid's uncle); her maternal aunt, however, said the girl should marry her son. After witnessing the two women fight it out, Rafqa locked herself in her room to pray and think about what she should do... and took the third option she had left: becoming a nun, not just to escape the marriages but because she wanted to do so. She became the first Lebanese female Catholic saint.
Some time ago, a prince offered those who had comitted a crime a chance to either die by being hanged or being decapitated with a sword (which was considered honorable), which consisted in saying something true, non-related to the prince. Most people failed due to the prince, who just declined everything said and condemned them to die by the mob. One day, an old man was being judged, after being asked the question, he said "I'll be hanged". If he got hanged, then what he said would be a truth, so he should be decapitated. But then if he was decapitated, he would have been saying a lie. The prince was impressed by such a demonstration of wit, and let the old man live.

Game Theory

A classic from Mathematics: the Truel, a duel with three participants. Mr. White has a one in three chance of hitting his target, Mr. Grey a two in three chance, and Mr. Black is a perfect shot. To make things fair, Mr. White has the first shot. Who should he shoot?
- If he shoots at Mr. Grey, he might kill him, then Mr. Black has the next shot. "Oops".
- If he shoots at Mr. Black, seemingly the best option, he might kill him, then Mr. Grey has the next shot. Oh dear.
- If he takes a third option and shoots into the air, Mr. Grey and Mr. Black shoot at each other until one dies, then Mr. White has the first shot in a * duel* . Note that the odds are still against Mr. White, so he may want to look into an even thirdier option like running away and changing his name.

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