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The chainsaws are in the case a little further down the hall, by the way. First Random Cop: We have to call dispatch!
Second Random Cop: And tell them what?! That a polite robot just walked into the UN?
Third Random Cop: (into radio) Dispatch, we've got a 4-2-7 at the UN...
Let's say that the Negative Space Wedgie has blasted your Five Man Band back in time. You sink into despair; the world is doomed. But there is hope! One member of the team phones himself, recites a series of passwords he memorized in case he ever travels in time, then asks himself to not press the "End the World" button in five years' time. And to visit his grandmother more often. Problem solved.
That's just one example of Crazy Prepared, where a character demonstrates preparedness for one or more (but preferably all) highly unlikely scenarios. You'd normally say, "No! No freaking way they could have thought of that beforehand!" But no, that's why it's Crazy Prepared, see?
If you always have on hand what it takes to MacGyver your way out of a tight spot, or have your large, impressive gun rack all sorted by varmint size, this trope is for you.
See also: Properly Paranoid, I Know Kung Fu, You Never Asked, Unspoken Plan Guarantee,
Xanatos Gambit, Batman Gambit, Hidden Supplies, Seen It All and Crazy Survivalist. Contrast Forgot To Feed The Monster.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- Hokuto No Ken has the sacred martial art, Hokuto Shinken, which apparently comes with a specific technique for violently countering any attack as well as inducing Karmic Death in any manner of villain (for example, if you garrote people to death because you're evil, the right combination of pressure points will cause you to decapitate yourself with it). In an interesting example of characterization involving this trope, the later volumes see the main character relying less on cute special techniques to kill random Mooks and being content to merely punch them into pudding (of course, unleashing your hidden brute strength is another of the style's techniques...)
- We are told that Hayate The Combat Butler keeps multiple flavors of jam packets in his pockets. Nagi also mentions that when a master asks for gum, any properly trained butler will have EVERY possible flavor on hand . . . just in case.
- Yuuko the Dimension Witch of XXX Holic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle sees all that is to be and has the proper equipment for it...if you can meet her price.
- In an episode of Demashita Powerpuff Girls Z, Miss Keane has a counter on hand for any bizarre excuse the girls come up with to leave class, thinking they're trying to cut class. These excuses include a hip ulcer, having to go into space, and attending a wedding of mole people.
- Mayuri Kurotsuchi of Bleach invoked this trope in his fight with Szayel Aporo Granz, revealing a crazy number of preparations. To whit, he:
- Planted bacteria on Ishida during their previous fight so he could monitor him.
- Made it so his Bankai could self-destruct if it was ever used against him.
- Replaced all of his organs with fake ones to render himself immune to Szayel's voodoo-style powers.
- Planted poison in his vice-captain Nemu's body in case she was subject to Body Horror.
- All of the preparations he made prior to arriving wound up getting used, even the ones that Mayuri couldn't have planned for based on what he had seen of Szayel's abilities thus far (like his ability to infect and control other beings, or his squicky method of resurrection). This led to jokes in the fandom about how Mayuri had reached "Batman levels" of planning.
- Ichigo explodes out of the garganta and swings his sword at the back of Aizen's neck. He gets blocked, not because Aizen saw him coming, but becuse he has a shield on the back of his neck. To be fair, when you're one person fighting against many it's a good assumption that someone's going to try that move on you.
- In the Houshin Engi manga, before the battle between the Yin and Zhou, Taikoubou gives the commander of the Zhou army a manual containing every possible move the Yin army could make and how to counter it. He made it the previous day.
- Shikamaru Nara, Naruto's version of Batman, has been shown in the anime thinking of plans and strategies to use against various Akatsuki members if he were to fight them. Later he preplanned an entire fight against two supposedly immortal Akatsuki. Guess who came out on top? Subverted when he fought Temari and thought of over 200 plans in his head—none of which would have worked because of his own physical lacking. He's since largely surpassed these limitations.
- On a more 'meta' note, it's been theorized that Kishimoto added Ino, Rock Lee, and Hinata to the storyline so that he could potentially resolve the Naruto/Sakura/Sasuke love triangle however he wanted without anyone getting hurt. Sasuke's Face Heel Turn and the opinions of the fandom may have complicated things, however.
- The Fourth Hokage deserves an honorable mention here as well after the events of issue 439.
- In Chapter 370, it's indicated that he may have sealed the Nine-Tailed Fox into Naruto as some sort of preparation against Madara Uchiha, and sealed the Yang half of the fox's chakra into Naruto in order to have him one day complete a jutsu that would enable him to control the fox's power.
- Itachi Uchiha also deserves honorable mention for having two contingency plans set up to ultimately protect Sasuke, the first one has failed, but the second one lies in the hands of Naruto.
- Lelouch, the Magnificent Bastard protagonist of Code Geass, occasionally demonstrates levels of Crazy Prepared that border on the absurd — or maybe precognitive. Using his Evil Eye on people well in advance of his plans is actually reasonable, but putting an ejectable case full of mirrors in his Humongous Mecha so he could use said power on someone without the risk of exposing himself to a similar power — like his father's memory wipe? Then a few episodes later, he specifically seeks out Guilford and gives him an order that causes him to see Lelouch as Princess Cornelia, which comes in handy just in time to allow Lelouch to escape from captivity. And that's not even going into his multi-function "magic button"...
- Don't forget him ordering Schneizel to obey Zero, thereby keeping Schneizel servile even after Lelouch's death because he was no longer Zero and Suzaku was.
- Light Yagami of Death Note. One of the most astounding examples is his decision to hide a miniature TV within a packet of potato chips (a flavour the rest of his family hates, of course) in case of surveillance cameras being placed in his house, so that he can use the TV to gain information on criminals without it showing up on camera.
- The TV was only a tactic devised as a result of an even more Crazy Prepared plan he had to test if anyone went in his room without him knowing; 1)tilting the door handle down slightly in the closed position; if people return it to the normal closed position after leaving the room, he will notice that they went in 2)lodging a piece of paper in the door that would fall out if it was opened and 3)having expected and intended the people who wanted to sneak into his room to find and replace the paper, putting pencil lead that would break if the door was opened onto the door hinge. There's also his creating the hidden compartment in his desk drawer with the igniting gasoline trap to prevent anyone from finding the Death Note itself.
- In a subversion of Chekhov's Gun, the hidden compartment never IS triggered. It's just to establish that he IS, in fact, Crazy Prepared.
- He also keeps porn for the sole purpose of convincing possible spies that he hasn't detected their surveillance devices. The crazy part isn't that he takes these measures to protect the Death Note. It's that he routinely used all the tactics to tell him if someone entered his room before he found the Death Note, despite apparently keeping no possessions of any real value to him in there and knowing of no reason for anyone to want to go in. Although, he does seem to be a very private (read secretive) person. (Though the pre-Death Note "protect the room" measures aren't that crazy when you remember that he has a younger sibling.)
- Let's not forget L, who under 3 different aliases, has made sure he's the top 3 detectives in the world in case somebody wants to learn his identity. This is just a small example of course, because to try and list every single Crazy Prepared thing he's done would just be impossible.
- What takes the cake for L being Crazy Prepared comes from the live-action film series, in which he writes his own name in the Death Note just in case Kira decided to do it, setting his date of death at a certain time in the future and couldn't be altered. While this might seem more "crazy" then "prepared" keep in mind this is what lets him catch Light, which is something his anime and manga self failed at.
- Yu-Gi-Oh and all of the card playing characters use this trope to the extreme, with characters countering, counter-countering and counter-counter-countering each other regularly and with ease.
- Lampshaded in the Abridged series quite a lot. "I play this card, which would be compeltely useless in any other situation!"
- Happens in the real life version of the game much more than one would expect; or maybe not, seeing how counters and traps and effects that work against each other are the whole point of the game.
- Inori Yamabuki. Whoever brings an umbrella to the amusement park to protect from splashing water caused by log flume?
- In Baccano!, it's shown that the Daily Days newspaper company has seen to it that every single employee in their headquarters keeps a loaded gun in or under their desk, which they're instructed to take out at the slightest suspicion. It's taken even further in the novels, where desks and supplies are carefully arranged so that, should a firefight break out, all employees have access to cover while intruders are wide-open and thoroughly screwed.
- Juzo Kabuto from Shin Mazinger is a very well-prepared Mad Scientist. In addition to building escape routes all over the city, he also created a secret Shinto command center inside a shrine, complete with 100 armed Bodhisattva statues projecting images from their eyes and operating dozens of levers and switches at once. The shrine functioned as a remote control for the series titular Humongous Mecha, in case his grandson found himself unable to pilot. Tsubasa even moreso, with enough firepower at her inn to let four Badass Abnormal men and one woman hold off legions of robots single-handedly.
- Sagara Sousuke from Full Metal Panic. He has, at hand, pretty much any and every kind of weapon you can possibly find. And he can pull any of them out at any time from... somewhere. In one episode he's shown to even have a biochemical suit handy, which he promptly puts on. He received by error a biochemical weapon, so he must have "somehow" prepared it in advance.
- Kiritsugu Emiya from Fate Zero. Having been bound to a contract not to perform an actual murder, his associate barges into the hostage situation with a machine gun.
- In Mahou Sensei Negima, Negi's ability to be Crazy Prepared is pointed out as his greatest strength. This is seen most clearly in his fight with Jack Rakan. The kid essentially learned an anti-army spell, completed several techniques than his master had given up on after hundreds of years of work (which he combined with said anti-army spell), and created his own uberspell from scratch...to use as a distraction, so he could set up his real plan.
- In Combattler V, an episode involves the villain kidnapping the team's super scientist. He then exploits Professor Yotsuya's drinking problem to make him drink some wine with truth serum in it. Luckily, the professor had a capsule with an antidote hidden in his teeth.
- In an episode of Outlaw Star set on a space station where conventional firearms are forbidden due to safety concerns, Gene Starwind for some reason has paintball bullets for his gun which he uses to disable the visual sensors of a robot enemy.
- Inu no Taishou in Inu Yasha had to have been psychic or SOMETHING to plan out everything to do with Tessaiga and Tenseiga. The challenge Sesshoumaru must undertake to perfect Tenseiga's abilities is particularly egregious; it required him to both have a human companion, but also to be willing to chase her into a hell dimension, and then to be so distraught by her death as to gain the only ability that would allow him to escape back to the real world. Inu-Yasha also had only one shot at retrieving Tessaiga in the first place, and needed a human with him to do it. This sort of thing never goes away with those swords.
- Ah Blue from Pokemon Special. Best ones were when she apparently stuffs her shirt with Pokeballs and pretends her Ditto is her arm. She really seems to enjoy taunting her opponents into attacking her directly. On a lesser note, she apparently takes careful notes on everything she does and looks into, which backfires on her when Silver steals them after she tries to teleport him away from the final battle. He shows up anyway when learns the location from the notes.
Comic Books
Commercials
- Sent up in an ad campaign for Smirnoff Ice, in which the host has a very conspicuous preparation for (with the exception of one Anvilicious drunk-driving device) extremely unlikely events, such as a giant-tennis-ball-catapult in case of giant dogs and a surprisingly dinky trident in case a kraken surfaces from the swimming pool.
- One of Mastercard's "Priceless" commercials featuring Mac Gyver (yes, starring Richard Dean Anderson) shows him buying all the little things he uses well ahead of time.
Film
- Jigsaw - of the Saw franchise - is getting close to being the personification of this trope, to the point where if there is another film, he's going to make the God damned Batman look like a rank amateur. Despite the slight handicap of suffering from being in the final stages of an inoperable brain tumour in the first three films and the slightly more serious affliction of being dead in the following ones, he is STILL able to mastermind the abductions of literally dozens of people, the creation of ridiculously elaborate traps, training of real and fake apprentices and apparently being able to predict every single action and consequence of all these machinations nearly flawlessly.
- That's impressive and all, but there's the problem that he died. Natural causes just means you have even more time to predict the matter and have it resolved.
- Burt Gummer from the Tremors movie series maintains an enormous collection of firearms and survival gear for any contingency, even before giant, subterranean killer worms invade his town. One exchange in Tremors 3 sums up his existence well:
Jodi: Uh, but do we have a lighter?
Jack: Burt does.
Burt: How do you know?
Jack: Well, 'cause you're... Burt.
Burt: [presenting lighter] Damn right I am.
- Rourke from the Disney film Atlantis is described as "never being surprised". This would include having folding fighter planes to use against the heroes. Atlantians who manage to improbably restart ancient flying machines to create an aerial fighting force to pursue the plunderers are also featured.
- Fighter planes on an underground mission no less.
- Fighter planes on an underground, underwater(!?!) mission no less.
- Marion from Undead is a 'by the book' example of this trope. His preparedness is explained by his previous experience of alien abduction and contact with zombie fish (). Of course, everyone thinks that he's crazy, until one day...
- Mary Poppins' bottomless bag contains apparently everything... and more. (Under)played for laughs, but this behavior would still fit the trope.
- The watch does everything...except tell time.
- Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) from the movie Conspiracy Theory. It's his Crazy Preparedness that actually saves him and the girl when the "Them" really come to his apartment to get him.
- Her earlier experiences made Sarah Connor vigilant and just a little paranoid. Terminator II also shows that it's also made her crazy prepared. She pulls into a friend's place on the Mexican border and tells him she needs her "things." This turns out to be a years-buried cache of weapons including a freaking minigun. It's even alluded to that she spent John's childhood arming him with Chekhov's skills. This even applies posthumously; T3 reveals her tomb is actually a weapons cache, and she was cremated. She neglected to tell her own son, presumably so he couldn't accidentally tell anyone else. Also presumably, she was counting on Skynet or the Resistance breaking into her tomb at one point and finding out.
- The Goonies. Data with all his Homemade Inventions is Crazy Prepared for the circumstances of the story's adventure. Trapped in the darkness? Super-bright flashlights on his belt. Bad guy getting too close? Pneumatic boxing glove hiding in his jacket. Bad guys in hot pursuit? His shoes produce Oil Slicks. Falling down a hole? His "Pinchers of Peril" keep him from going splat. Plus more. Now only if they all worked flawlessly...
- The Men In Black have not only a gadget and weapon for everything (rocket car, neuralizer, injection that turns you into a fishman, fishing pole that is actually a gun, etc.) but multiple caches of them hidden throughout New York in random apartments and businesses. Several buildings are actually spaceships, which are a result of a cover-up or placed intentionally, but are nonetheless useful. This trope was played with more in the animated series than the films. In the second film, Agent K neuralized himself to protect the Mac Guffin of the film (before retiring and being neuralized again), but left clues in case he needed to find it.
- In Harlem Nights, Quick prepares for an evening with a rival club owner's girlfriend by stashing a gun under both pillows of her bed. In doing so, he finds the pistol she's already hidden there. When she pulls it on him afterwards, she finds that he took out the bullets, just in case.
- Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) in Law Abiding Citizen. Granted he had ten years in which to plan and set everything up, but constructing a secret entrance into every solitary confinement cell in a prison displays a crazy amount of preparedness.
Literature
- The Survivalist, hero of the 1980's action novel series by Jerry Ahern. Ex-CIA agent John Rouke has a well-stocked underground retreat enabling him to survive not only World War Three, the collapse of society and Soviet occupation, but later the extinction of all life on Earth!
- World War Z. White South African Paul Redeker had been hired by the government to come up with contingency plans in case of a large-scale revolt of the native African population (called Plan Orange). When the Zombie Apocalypse occurred, Redeker went to his mountain retreat and, on his own initiative, adapted Plan Orange into a national zombie survival plan. Most governments in the world implemented his plan and eventually survived the war. Not forgetting the first book The Zombie Survival Guide which taught the average Joe how to survive a zombie attack, with advice about forming groups of people, securing secluded land and, naturally, hoarding food, materials and weapons.
- Mouse, the central character of The Eighteenth Emergency by Betsy Byars, spends his spare time working out plans for dealing with various emergencies, such as being bitten by a tarantula or attacked by a tiger. He is a 12 year old who living in suburbia. The entire premise of the book is that there's an 18th emergency he hasn't prepared for; being beat up by a bully. If you must know, he pretty much gets his head handed to him.
- In Through The Looking Glass, Alice meets the White Knight, who is crazy prepared (emphasis on crazy!). He has a mouse-trap on his horse's saddle and his horse wears anklets to prevent shark attacks. He keeps the empty plum-cake plate Alice is holding, just in case they find any plum-cake.
- Etjole Ehomba, central character of Journeys of the Catechist by Alan Dean Foster, carries any number of magical and alchemical gifts in his backpack. Most of these are intended for use in other applications, but prove effective in whatever crazy-ass situation he's currently facing as well. In addition, his "sky-metal sword" usually has a hidden ability perfect for whatever foe he's fighting.
- In Good Omens by Messrs. Gaiman and Pratchett, the International Maritime Codes include an eight-letter code (XXXV QVVX, if you're really curious) for "Have found Lost Continent of Atlantis. High Priest has just won quoits contest."
- Crowley, a demon, keeps a flask of Holy Water in his house just in case.
- Truth In Television (or literature in this case): an essay in the 28 July 1934 issue of The New Yorker was entitled "Melancholy Notes On A Cablegram Code Book" and it mentions a bunch of these sorts of code groups in a commercial (non-secret) code. Such as LYADI, meaning "Arrived here with decks swept, boats and funnels carried away, cargo shifted, having encountered a hurricane." Or EWIXI, "Very few cases of cholera are now reported". As the essay's author mentions, some of them are just a little too disturbingly detailed.
- The protagonist of HP Lovecraft's The Shunned House suspects that he has discovered a vampire, but knows better than to rely on a wooden stake and hammer, instead bringing a pair of flamethrowers and a Crookes tube, "in case it proved intangible and opposable only by vigorously destructive ether radiations".
- Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents. Due to Malicia's awareness of the Theory Of Narrative Causality, she carries an adventuring bag with such items as a grapnel, a rope ladder, laxative for surviving on a coconut diet on a deserted island, and cotton-wool for blocking the vents of a giant underwater mechanical squid. She lives several hundred miles inland. These come in handy repeatedly, though not for their intended purposes.
- Mr Teatime, an assassin in Hogfather, made a hobby of working out ways to kill anthropomorphic personifications, such as the Hogfather, the Tooth Fairy or even Death. This of course came in very handy in his next contract.
- Vetinari, the Dangerously Genre Savvy Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, knows that when a ruler is overthrown the overthrowers tend to lock the ruler away in the deepest, dankest cell of his palace's dungeons. Hence, Vetinari ensured that while the deepest, dankest cell's door has a heavy-duty lock on the outside, all of the deadbolts and bars are on the inside. He also has the key hidden behind a brick in the cell wall so escape can be performed at leisure.
- Training the local sentient rats to run errands didn't hurt either. Yes, the Patrician arranged for his jail cell to have room service.
- The entire Tucker family in the online serial novel The Saga Of Tuck: Preparations for yearly extended camping trips included vaccinations for several diseases never known to occur in the area they would be hiking through and annual Red Cross first aid re-certification. They carried in their packs: morphine ampules, radios with solar-powered chargers, night vision gear, and enough food and water for more than twice as long as their intended trip. They also trained in unarmed combat, knife fighting (the lead character, Tuck, was known to carry several especially when dressed as his female alter ego Valerie, and firearm training that included several types of pistol and rifle and 'spin tests' to ensure they could shoot accurately while disoriented. From comments made elsewhere, this is apparently a fair reflection of how author Ellen Hayes and her family really are.
- Word Of God from the author, Ellen Hayes:
Nightvision gear was too expensive to justify so they don't have any, they only carry two days extra of food on a seven day trip, I found solar battery chargers on the 'Net before I wrote that, and the immunizations were during the 'every year before school' visit most of us had (taken, of course, to the survivalist extreme that the family does). As for me being that way... "Shut up." (A local trope, meaning "You are right but for lame ego-saving purposes I don't wish to admit this out loud.")
- Doc Savage has a spyhole and control panel within his private elevator that can start a film projection of him getting killed in a selected way (machine gun, acid, explosion etc.) onto the lobby door of the elevator before it opens to fool anyone who would ever try to personally attack him in the lobby of the Empire State Building. It is only used once in 16 years.
- Hermione, from Harry Potter, but she's only Crazy Prepared in comparison Ron and Harry, who barely pay attention even in self-defense classes (imagine how they would be if math were actually required of them) and the pureblood wizarding world in general, which she says doesn't have "an ounce of logic".
- Raoul Duke and Dr.Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. "We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers....Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls..."
- A character in one of Lawrence Block's "Ehrengraf" short stories places titular character Martin Ehrengraf on retainer to defend him on the charge of muder. For a murder he intends to commit. Ehrengraf quips, "I wish all of my clients had as much foresight as you."
- Moomin's mother never parts from her handbag. When another character asks her what she is carrying that is so important, she replies: "Oh, stomach medicine and clean socks and steel wire and other things that might be useful". Also, her handbag frequently contains exactly the thing the family needs.
- Clan Korval from the Liaden Universe. Due to a contractual oversight, they're legally still in charge of the entire planet of Liad should an enemy try to harm the citizens. The entire clan has been designed to be able to financially, mentally, and physically able to fight at any given moment. Complete with Time For Plan B emergency planning.
Live Action TV
- During the third season of Alias, Jack Bristow is a model of preparedness in the episode, "Breaking Point
 ." As part of a rescue attempt, he accesses a secret personal storage facility containing firearms, medical supplies, money, flak jackets, and other things typical of a well-stocked arsenal. While not out of character, it is the first time this resource has been revealed, and it increases the viewer's understanding of just how exceptionally cautious Jack can be. Michael Vaughn comments, "The fact that you're letting me see this place means... it's not your only one, is it?" Jack responds dryly, "You're smarter than you look."
- Battlestar Galactica: A somewhat mild case, but one wonders why exactly Admiral Bill Adama stores the interrogation drug from hell on the Galactica and seems quite familiar with its use... you know, just in case you recapture and need to intimidate and torture Gaius Baltar in the most imaginative and surreal way possible. Similarly, the survival of the people who would eventually form Sam Anders' resistance on post-nuclear Caprica was hand-waved by stating that the resistance was largely Sam's team mates- athletes conducting high altitude training in the mountains- plus a bunch of survivalist types, whom you'd expect to be Crazy Prepared.
- Given the timing of the Baltar interrogation episode, the interrogation drug could have been obtained from the supplies onboard the Pegasus before the latter ship was lost. Admiral Cain is just the sort of psycho to keep some of that crap around.
- Merton of Big Wolf On Campus demonstrates this when, after his run-in with Medusa, it becomes clear he has produced an indexed videotape with instructions of how to ameliorate almost any supernatural disaster that could befall him. The (not unjustified) implication, of course, is that if he were around, he'd be able to fix it. Also, it helps to have a convenient rope in the "lair" to drop a squirt-gun filled with holy water.
- In Black Books, Bernard Black is forced to take shelter in a adult video store after being locked out of his shop. In order to stay in as long as he can, he resorts to inventing a series of unlikely fetishes "Have you got anything with Senior Administrative Nurses — that's the only thing I'm interested in" which the shop owner is able to fulfill instantly.
- In Cheers, cloudcuckoolander Woody loses a dollar bill. Cliff finds it, but balks at returning it. Instead, he demands that Woody prove that the bill in question is actually the one that he lost, by identifying the serial number on the bill. Without missing a beat, Woody recites the serial number. After Cliff, visibly shaken, returns the bill, Woody is asked how he did that. He replies that he memorizes the serial numbers on all his currency. When asked why, he says "for just this sort of situation".
- Parodied in Corner Gas, in the episode where Hank can't find his debit card and, instead of getting a wallet, decides to wear large cargo pants with a ton of pockets. He is seemingly able to have anything in them, and when asked for pliers, asks "regular or needlenose?" By the end of the episode, he's so encumbered by all of the stuff in his pants he gets rid of them.
- Marcie in Dark Season rarely uses the plans, but in a twist we see her prepared for an awful lot. She always carries a paddle ("you never know when you might be up the creek") and measures pathways with a tape measure because it helps to know these things.
- In an episode of Dharma And Greg, Greg's grandmother dies before giving the family heirloom ring to Kitty. Dharma and Jane had to get it off the body, but it got stuck, and Jane pulled out the WD-40 in her purse, which she said she had for "a situation like this". Dharma's next line Lampshaded it with "Besides this, what's a situation like this?"
- Although Doctor Who's iconic Sonic Screwdriver qualifies as a Do Anything Robot, the Second Doctor's penchant for pulling all sorts of stuff out of his pockets fits the trope. ("All sorts" include food, which after a bit of Fridge Logic will give you a nice ol' Squick).
- The 10th Doctor delivers a Hand Wave by explaining that his coat pockets are Bigger On The Inside.
- Also noteworthy: in the fourth season of the new series, Donna Noble has apparently been driving around London with a full set of luggage — including a hatbox — in the trunk just in case she should happen to run into the Doctor.
- In the episode "The Doctor's Daughter" the doctor uses a clockwork mouse to distract a guard. Or the stethoscope, which he always carries with him.
- Parodied in The Creature from the Pit where the Tom Baker Doctor is stuck in a mine shaft. Fortuitously he just happens to have mountaineering equipment and the book Everest in Easy Stages in his pockets. Unfortunately it's in Tibetan... so he produces Teach Yourself Tibetan from his pocket as well.
- The Fourth Doctor used this as a delaying mechanism in "Genesis of the Daleks".
- The Fourth Doctor also once unexpectedly found himself on trial by some alien energy beings. When it was time for him to answer to the charges, he pulled a barrister's wig from his pocket and donned it.
- In "Planet of the Dead", Lady Christina is carrying, among other things, a folding shovel. Presumably in case she ever needs to bury her ill-gotten gains on a desert island.
- Captain Jack always has a gun tucked away somewhere, as revealed in the episode Bad Wolf when he is stripped naked. Where does he store it? You Dont Want To Know
- UNIT has clearly become this by 'Battlefield' when The Brigadier can demand silver bullets - and get them!
- The administration of the city Eureka. Two Words: resurrection form.
- Also Vincent, the resident Supreme Chef. Apparently there is no possible food you can request that he cannot provide. And he welcomes your attempts to try and stump him.
- Mac Gyver is somehow prepared for anything, be it a nuclear meltdown or a neighbor kid's bike malfunctioning. He always carries a pocketknife, matches, and duct tape (even keeping a pocket-sized roll) with him. He allegedly can fix a computer with a hairpin and a piece of duct tape, though this particular MacGyverism is never demonstrated.
- MASH's Col. Flagg is prepared for just about anything. However his methods are somewhat... unorthodox. In case he is captured by the enemy:
Flagg: No one knows the truth. Even I don't know the truth.
- Final episode of the fourth season of Lost, the Ax Crazy mercenary leader sets up a Dead Man Switch, a bomb on his own ship, set up to go off when his heart stops. He uses this to hold everyone on the ship hostage when at a disadvantage pursuing his quarry. Problems? One, he's a mercenary on a dangerous mission; he could have been killed at any time, without anyone knowing about the doomsday device, and then he's killed everyone and stranded his own team. Two, he had no reason for thinking he'd need any such device. Three, he has no reason to believe his quarry would be deterred — his quarry has no use for the ship or anyone on it, and has already shown himself to be a total psychopath.
- Considering he was going up against season 4 Ben, this was actually a case of not being prepared enough. Nothing short of the supernatural can be prepared for Benjamin Linus. For pete's sake, the man keeps a shotgun in his piano bench.
- Actually, as the season 5 finale proved, not even the supernatural is prepared for Benjamin Linus.
- On News Radio Mr. James accidentally loses Bill in a poker game. When Bill questions whether he has the legal right to gamble Bill's services, Mr. James tells him to check his contract. Bill immediately takes out his contract from his coat pocket. When Dave asks why he carries his contract with him, Bill answers, brashly: "At a time like this, it doesn't sound so crazy, now does it?"
- News Radio was crazy into this trope in general. Another notable example would be the episode "Security Door" where Dave answers questions by showing incredibly well drawn slides. Dave has a hilarious slide for every question, even as the questions themselves get progressively more insane.
- Again Bill Mc Neal's funeral service had Matt not believing he was dead. Apparently Bill had a secret message to reveal to Matthew whether or not he had died in case he had to fake his own death!
- Power Rangers. Specifically the first six seasons, comprised of (In Order): Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers Turbo, and Power Rangers In Space. Somewhat justified, in that being trapped in a time warp for thousands of years has given Zordon a stupidly spectacular amount of free time in which to prepare extra zords, potential backup power sources, huge Macross-esque transforming spacecraft, whose key component was a space shuttle that would be built by a modern space agency on Earth millennia later called NASADA. The only thing that defeated Zordon's well laid plans was the FUCKING BLUE CENTURION.
- Psych's Police Officers seem to RUN on this trope. Shawn's dad Henry from is always a little intense considering he was a very hard core police officer. Upon returning home with Shawn and Gus, they saw someone snooping around their house, and Henry quickly reached into the bird house and pulled out a stun gun. Cue the appropriate reaction from Shawn and Gus.* Detective Lassiter survives a home invasion by shooting the attacker with a gun he keeps hidden in a bowl of M&Ms, AFTER the man mentions roughly 6 guns have been discovered and taken by the same person, including hiding spots of: the fridge, in the couch cushions, and in the bowl of pretzels next to said bowl of M&Ms.
- A subtle version of this appears in The Sarah Connor Chronicles, where Sarah and John have just moved into a new house, and are still painting the walls when Cromartie busts down the door. Sarah rips down the wallpaper to reveal a hidden shotgun, and when Cromartie shoots back, she takes cover behind a chair filled with kevlar. Also, slightly less subtle in that the Connors had a storage unit full of extra firearms and explosives. And if T3 is anything to go by, Sarah has no issue putting weapons caches in odd places, like coffins.
- Bobby of Supernatural is a Crazy Prepared Cool Old Guy.
Sam: Bobby, is this...
Bobby: Solid iron, completely coated in salt. 100% Ghost-proof.
Sam: You built a panic room?
Bobby: I had a weekend off.
Dean: Bobby, you're awesome.
- In "Sex and Violence" we see that running into the "real" FBI, police (whatever) poses no threat, with Bobby and his wall of ID-labelled phones, covering any possible encounter.
- For that matter, the Winchester boys themselves. Considering how many things they've run into, they've developed weapons for demons, shapeshifters, werewolves, vampires, wendigos, tulpas, ghosts, and tricksters, just to name a VERY few.
- Threshold involves enacting the preprepared plans for aliens invading the world by inflicting people with The Virus. Unfortunately they don't have the facilities (such as a secure facility to stash aliens and artifacts) and are scrambling to pull it all together.
- An episode of Will And Grace had Karen pull out a bottle of champagne and glasses from her purse at request. While this is somewhat in-character, she soon after pulls out a video camera.
- In The Office (US), we have this quote from Pam, the receptionist:
Did I expect to be preparing for a bird funeral today? .... Around here, you never know what to expect.
- Dwight keeping a pepper spray in his desk ever since he started working there. If that's not enough to cement his Crazy Prepared status, the scene where he whips off a letter-perfect statement of the event which called for him to use said spray from memory to a stunned police officer is. He also keeps in said desk, among other things, nunchuks.
- In a later episode, it's shown that he stashes weapons all over the office, including a sword in the drop ceiling above his desk, sais behind the water cooler, a knife in a file cabinet (marked Mr. A Knife), and a blow gun inside the toilet tank of the Men's room. Dwight also Lampshades this:
Pam: "There are two keys to the office. Dwight has both. When I asked him what would happen if he died, he said 'If I'm dead, you've all been dead for weeks.'"
- When Dwight is convinced Jim has turned into a vampire — in an episode coincidentally directed by Joss Whedon — Creed just happens to have the implements to fashion a wooden stake from a broom handle in his desk.
- Pretty much the entire premise of Neds Declassified School Survival Guide is the title character collecting lots of info on every possible facet of school life. According to some viewers, the tips given actually work in real life.
- There's also Cookie, who combines this with Do Anything Robot. There seems to be no end to all the weird (and completely useless) things he's made a helmet or pair of glasses for.
- A black-and-white Finnish "Spede"-made sketch features a sadistic Obstructive Bureaucrat and a long-suffering man out to get his revenge by bringing "all the paperwork." After a bizarre Escalating War, the man proves to have a certificate of not having visited Zanzibar, in duplicate, but lets slip that he's married. The man has a certificate showing that he hasn't been married to any other woman, but the bureaucrat rejects this as too vague and demands proof for each individual. The man concedes in fury, but before leaving he makes a start with the ten thousand such certificates he does have...
- Lampshaded in an episode of Wings, when the gang is adrift in a lifeboat after making an emergency water landing:
Fay: I think I know what the problem is. We're all getting a little cranky because we're all hungry. Well, I keep something in my purse for just such an occasion.
Brian: Wait. You keep a little something in your purse in case you're stranded at sea in a lifeboat in an evening gown?
Fay: Oh, shut up.
- When told we should return to the attitude on the day after 9/11, Stephen Colbert pulled out a big-ass shotgun while wearing a gas mask and an adult diaper (so you don't have to leave your bunker):
- In Farscape, Aeryn Sun's Bad Ass but evil mother used her own fingernail to cut open her arm to reveal a knife that she apparently had stashed there, just in case.
- Not only does Scorpius wear an impervious gimp suit, but he also has a single-shot pulse weapon hidden alongside the coolant rods in his brain.
- Also, before entering into a potentially difficult alliance with Moya's crew, Scorpius pretends to remove his neural clone from Crichton's brain as a gesture of goodwill. In reality, he simply programs it to remain dormant so long as the alliance remains intact; naturally, this pays off when Crichton abandons him on Katratzi.
- During an episode of Friends, half the characters are trapped in Rachel's room for most of the night without any food. A later episode shows that Joey had planted a box of food and games in that room in case it ever happened again. That box also included condoms because, as he put it:
Joey: We don't know how long we're gonna be in here. We may have to repopulate the earth.
Chandler: And condoms are the way to do that...
- In Leverage, Nate reveals he had thought of 13 ways for the team to pull their first stun. Parker says she spends her free time thinking how to rob stuff.
- An old Ernie and Bert sketch on Sesame Street has Ernie heading off to take a bath with a flashlight (in case a fuse blows), an umbrella (in case it starts to rain in the bathroom), and a bowling ball (in case somebody wanders by and asks to borrow one). Bert, naturally, states that this is the most ridiculous thing he's ever heard...until all that stuff starts happening.
- In Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Jerry's jacket exists as an example of this trope.
- In the infamous Jon Stewart/Jim Cramer interview, Jon Stewart shows this to an impressive level. Not only by having a counter to each of Cramer's arguments, but by having prepared in advance video clips of Jim Cramer fatally undercutting his own arguments.
- A sketch on Mad TV featured Big Bird getting the bird flu. After causing the deaths of many residents on Sesame Street, the human characters decide to kill him. One douses gasoline on Big Bird and then asks for a lighter. One of the kids suddenly shows off his, causing the asker to look quite surprised.
Pro Wrestling
- Jushin Thunder Lyger revealed that he has Sting-like face paint under his mask.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons And Dragons veterans will often remember taking ten foot long poles with them, just in case they ran into a trap where the switch was ten feet away. Mean-spirited DMs would, of course, make the switch eleven feet away.
- This is a time-honored tradition in roleplaying games, starting from the first editions of Dungeons And Dragons. Many games have even begun giving explicit Crazy Prepared kits in a character's starting equipment (Chill, GURPS' 'personal essentials', HARP, et multiple cetera).
- In pretty much *ANY* tabletop RPG, someone has a loadout with blunt, slash, pierce, fire, cold, possibly ice/pure magic/acid, and throwing weapons in case their main loadout doesn't have reach. It's like Medieval More Dakka.
- GURPS has an advantage called "Gizmo" that lets you carry one or more useful items, specified at the time you need them.
- Spirit Of The Century has this in the form of the Universal Gadget stunt. Alternatively, you can take the Rare Artifact stunt if you want something magical and with more features, though this does have a down side.
- Not quite a tabletop game, but related: the Grailquest series of gamebooks would give players the option to acquire seemingly ridiculous items, such as mechanical aardvarks and devices for communicating with crickets (not insects in general, you understand, but solely crickets.) In any given book, most of these items would be entirely useless but one or two would increase your chances of success significantly. The trick, of course, was figuring out which.
- In Mage The Awakening, mages are described as being at their most formidable when they are able to prepare their powers in advance, and are rather more vulnerable than other supernaturals when caught off guard, and there can be quite a diverse number of beasties in the World Of Darkness. Thus, any successful mage will take the idea of being Crazy Prepared to heart (particularly the Adamantine Arrow, whose creed includes the phrase "Adaptability is Strength)". This is especially true in mages' interactions with one another, since it means needing to be Crazy Prepared against dozens of others who are also Crazy Prepared.
- This is pretty much the whole point of Vancian Magic, really. What fighters, rogues and rangers prepare for with equipment, veteran wizards learn and prepare every spell they can fit in that might come in handy, and bring scrolls and wands just in case.
Video Games
- Crazy Prepared tends to be a side effect of any game that has an inventory system that must be managed; a clever player can equip his character or characters with wonderful toys to beat anything the game throws at him. Naturally, the side-effect would be that everything becomes Too Awesome To Use.
- In World Of Warcraft rogues will often end up carrying several doses of around 5 different poisons, flash powder for their "vanish" ability and before a patch removed the need for it "blinding powder". All classes need to carry food, drink bandages and antidotes. Additional patching has removed the need for Flash Powder and for collecting reagents to make poisons — the poisons are simply bought, now. Amusingly, any rogue still in possession of Blinding Powder is now treated to an amusing item description along the lines of "rogues used to use this to blind opponents until they decided to use more readily available materials — such as dirt".
- Don't get us started on gear. Most veterans will have several suits of armor and a variety of weapons based around the specific requirements of solo grinding, solo leveling, gold farming, 5-man instances, heroic instances, and every single 25+ man instance you can think about that has incredibly specific strategies to beat. There's a reason why so many players created their own one-person guild to have their personal use vault.
- Mages are jokes in this department — the class most often associated with Crazy Prepared gearing is the druid. Considering druids have four different viable talent specializations, all for different purposes, many druids carry a wealth of gear for those purposes, plus Pv P, grinding, resistance, etc sets-often, multiple variations of each. One of the more justified examples as well; even if not specced for a particular task, a druid with a good set of gear for that task can often do it well enough to get by an instance.
- Mages can be Crazy Prepared as well. While a mage can't be all 4 types of roles in the game, or even more than ranged DPS for that matter, we do have a lot of spells that are underused in raids, but can be used creatively. There's at least 3 mage spells that allow mages to survive any fall, two of which are improvised. Shields for Fire or Ice, and have several spells from 3 different schools of magic, in case the enemies are immune. Where Druids are prepared for every contingency, Mages brought a Swiss Army Knife and a Multi-Tool.
- Then there is the engineering profession, which lets you make items for all sorts of unlikely situations.
- On that note, most hardcore MMORPG raiding guilds require their members to be crazy prepared, such as bringing potions, items, macros, addons, and pretty much anything else that can possibly give them an edge over the boss.
- Jagged Alliance 2's extensive panoply of weapons (specifically, in the fan-made v1.13) coupled with the limited carry weight of your mercs makes this a bit more difficult, but it's easy to compartmentalize.
- In Final Fantasy Tactics, being Crazy Prepared is pretty much the only viable way to consistently beat Wiegraf/Belias and the first battle with Elmdor.
- Quite a bit of Nethack's gameplay consists of packratting items that can counter the game's many deathtraps: a lizard corpse to prevent being petrified, greased clothing in case a monster tries to grab you, boots of levitation to avoid pits, and an amulet of self-resurrection if everything else fails. Though it should be noted that the vast majority of them will, in fact, be used in a given successful run — certainly, you will have to fight Medusa with a mirror and deal with the cloak-grabbing enemies around her, find a castle which you need an instrument to enter, fly, resist fire, have an instant-kill available, dig out quick routes from one set of stairs to another for a fast escape, detect traps or have a stockpile of food (and detecting traps actually requires a detect gold scroll and something that conveys confusion), and I'm just listing things tied to fixed dungeon events, not individual monsters like the cockatrice or golems. A towel is also a very useful item to have.
- The Crysis Nanosuit always seemed to be crazy prepared. It can breathe underwater, has thrusters to work in zero gravity, can survive being frozen to -200 degrees... can't survive a single bite from a moderately-sized shark... and is also good against rockets and artillery.
- Any experienced Armored Core players know well enough to venture into an unknown mission not carrying equipment for all kinds of situations. These include radar equipped with bio-sensors so one can target biological threats, weapons that can track even the fastest of opponents such as machineguns or missiles, and weapons that cause a lot of damage to armored enemies. Some very professional players deliberately use overweighted ACs loaded with every weapon for any situations in Arenas, and eject any unnecessary weapons when the fight begins, depending on the enemy.
- Some weapons in Baldurs Gate II. Against mages, if they're not protected from magical weapons: Carsomyr (otherwise an unenchanted weapon of course). Against fire elementals or salamanders: The Wave. Against Air Elementals: Staff of Air. Against Undead: Runehammer. Against trolls or golems: Crom Faeyr. Against anyone that wouldn't die by loss of hitpoints: Chaos. For shopping (yes, for shopping): the Rose Blade. For Warrior/Cleric Multiclasses: Flail of Ages. For Backstabs: Black Blade of Disaster (or the Staff of the Ram). And then you move onto choosing spells for the wizards, clerics, and druids. Never leave home without: Insect Plague (for rendering casters unable to use their spells), Polymorph Self (flind form has a +3 magic weapon, mustard jelly is 100% magic resistant), Spell Turning, multiple healing/resurrection spells, Polymorph Other (in case your allies are charmed), Glitterdust (for dealing with invisibles), Burning Hands/Acid Arrow (in case of trolls), Chaos (to leave your enemies fighting each other), Drain Resistance (to deal with magic resistant enemies), Fireball (because it's Fireball)...
- The Space MMORPG EvE Online features a form of this, with players not only having to haul around different types of ammunition, missiles and drones for engaging targets at different ranges or fighting different types of enemies strong against particular types of damage and capacitor batteries for sustaining fire or damage, but also spare modules, since some may mean the difference between winning a fight and being made utterly useless, which often leads to utterly dead. What's more, in many situations, whether you are flying a large or a small ship, it doesn't matter how high your skills are or expensive your ship and gear; you have to change to an entirely different ship. Naturally, in the economy of Ev E, with experienced players often having whole stacks of ships in hangars strewn about and the ability to travel light years in an instant, this isn't such a big deal.
- Princess Liesel from Visual Novel Princess Waltz is physically weak, but a great blacksmith. As such she is defined by her Hope Spot killing, pulling out device after device to counter any attack her opponent makes. Being a bit of a Chessmaster she normally makes sure her opponents are where, when and how she wants them too.
- If you think about it for a moment, the main character of every Adventure Game ever made belongs here. Eaten by a snake? They've got an item that can get them out. Locked in an inescapable labyrinth? Portable hole-in-a-wall. Need to restore the victims of a medusa to flesh and blood? Yeah, there's something in the inventory for that. Unless you missed it.
- Neverwinter Nights 2 combines a crafting system with various types of damage resistance. If you're smart, you'll be carrying at least one self-made and -enchanted Silver, Cold Iron and Adamantine version of your favored weapon, if neccessary an additional bludgeoning weapon, and remember to add an alignment-enchanted weapon as well, so that you have the means to effectively hurt all the Werecreatures, devils and demons, Golems, Skeletons, Liches and what have you with the proper weapon of choice.
- Or just play a monk, where your hands end up being all those things anyway.
- In Planescape Torment, quite a few of The Nameless One's previous incarnations were Crazy Prepared — and for the most part, you benefit greatly from their contingencies, if you use them without being physically (or morally) offended.
- Setsumi in Narcissu has prepared several things in case she escapes, which she never does. This becomes handy after she did escape with the protagonist.
- The RTS TotalAnnihilation has an expansion pack called The Core Contingency, where its about the Core Empire's plan to fucking IMPLODE the galaxy in on itself in case they lost, which they did.
- Dr. Light from the Mega Man X series. Before his death, he had set up approximately 53 (or more) capsules containing upgrades all over the world for the main characters, even Zero, which is odd, seeing as Zero isn't even a creation of Light at all. And the hologram that shows up with each capsule falls into the Energy Being Obi Wan category, allowing himself to talk with both of them.
- Geoffrey from Disgaea 3, whose Catch Phrase is, "I thought this might happen, so I (X)".
- Basically every MMO encourages this by virtue of having so many scenarios possible. Of particular note is the old Ever Quest, which has a decade of content available for picking up neat toys.
- Dr. Bian Zoldark from Super Robot Wars does a good job of being this trope. In the Original Generation series, his plan to unite the world against the alien threat could've suceeded, even if the heroes failed, and in Super Robot Wars Alpha, he's managed to get bloody near every superweapon (such as Mazinger, Getter, Daitarn 3, etc.) maker or user in on his plans and drew up plans to keep Earth from being blown up, and even went as far as to leave backup plans (the Earth and Moon Cradle in both continuities), just in case.
- Batman does it again in the new game, Arkham Asylum. It is revealed early-ish in the game that Batman has secretly built an entire second Batcave on Arkham Island just in case, after he found an extensive cave as a side effect of saving a convict from committing suicide.
- He does it again just before trekking into Killer Croc's lair. Just before he enters it proper, he takes the time to use spray some explosive gel a seemingly random spot on the sewer floor for no apparent reason. It turns out to be how Batman defeats Killer Croc by blowing up the floor and sending Croc into a deep pit.
- In Dwarf Fortress, one of the more extreme "facilities" developed by players is called the "Fuck The World" device, which will lock your fortress up tight and flood the entire surrounding area with magma. Some fortresses also allow different areas of the fortress to be locked off and flooded. Or set up the main dining hall's roof to collapse, dropping hundreds of tons of rock on everyone inside. Or drop everyone in the trading depot into a room where dragons breath fire on them through a grate. This editor's even seen a concept for a Fortress that monitors foot traffic inside the fortress: If there's abnormal activity indicating a catastrophic population loss or an extended "Tantrum Spiral", the fortress will lock itself and activate the Fuck The World device, taking the world down with it.
- Let's give a Shout Out to the crazy preparedness of Shao Khan, of which took up the entirety of the third Mortal Kombat game; despite all his blabber about You Have Failed Me to his minions, he knew he might end up failing to win Earthrealm through legal means, so arranged to have his dead wife revived and Brainwashed And Crazy on Earthrealm, allowing him to step through the dimensional borders to claim her, and thus force a merger between Earth and Outworld. First three things he does upon doing so? Lock down his wife with bodyguards, steal the souls of everyone on Earth that isn't The Chosen One, and send a vast army of bloodthirsty, nigh-invulnerable beasts after said Chosen Ones to prevent them from ruining his plans. It didn't work out quite as planned, but you've got to give him credit for trying. He also shows this off in later games; anticipating that his "loyal" minions might one day attempt to overthrow him, he places a decoy in his place during the events of Deadly Alliance, thus surviving his infamous assassination attempt. Then, in Armageddon, he revives Shang Tsung (who had been vaporized by Raiden's attempt to destroy the Dragon King in Deception) and forces fealty on him, revealing that all minions swearing loyalty to him gets hit with a spell that, if Khan dies at any time, causes them to croak, as well...as well as giving him the ability to revive them at will. Damn.
- Manfred von Karma is one example of this from Ace Attorney- he retrains the parrot to get a guilty verdict! The other Crazy Prepared person is Phoenix Wright aka the player. You may not know why you have to "pick up" random pieces of "evidence", but they will come in handy, because you're ready with them.
Webcomics
- Hookie Dookie Panic◊ defines this trope, including weapons for just about anything.
- Haley from Order Of The Stick keeps carts for carrying loot in her Bag of Holding. The justification? "Girl's got to be prepared! Tee hee!"
- Belkar Bitterleaf one-upped Haley in this strip
- In Home On The Strange, Tanner tells his girlfriend a few facts about his childhood. When asked why, he says that it's so he can tell her them again if he gets misplaced in time or body switched. Note that the comic takes place in the real world, so this is a bit overprepared.
- In Questionable Content, Pintsize shows up in a full set of miniature samurai armor:
Marten: So you've had this for a while then? Just in case some situation arose where you would need full samurai regalia?
Pintsize: Well yeah. What's your point?
- Also in Questionable Content, Faye's mother came up with a code phrase for Faye to use in the event that she was being held against her will ("the peaches are ripe").
- This Penny Arcade! strip:
Tycho: Yes, Mr. President?
President: What do you know about manticores?
Tycho: Goddamn near everything.
- The setting of Dr Mc Ninja is a town with its own zombie defense system. Obviously comes in handy during the Zombie Apocalypse story arc. It makes a certain amount of sense, since the Genre Savvy Dr. Mc Ninja is written by a man whose basic philosophy towards writing is always go forward.
- Dr. Mc Ninja also has a barber on speed dial in case of emergencies.
- Thief from 8-Bit Theater has two clauses in everyone's contracts specifically for winning arguments. The first reads, "Yes, it is," and the second reads, "No, it isn't."
- Red Mage, who reveals that he has numerous contingency plans for pretty much any unlikely situation. He doesn't use any of these plans, since generally, his allies will just blast or stab everything he doesn't get to first.
- Mandatory El Goonish Shive example: Mr. Verres instantly produces a full presentation — complete with pointer, easel, and a poster-sized graph — to explain why Elliot is the de facto chaperone for Grace's Birthday party. And when Elliot's Half Identical Twin / Opposite Sex Clone Ellen voices an objection he produces another poster-sized graph that shows her to be more impulsive than than her "brother". Given that Ellen had been in existence for less than two weeks at that point one wonders where he got the data.
- Mandatory Girl Genius example: Zeetha wears special non-textile underclothing to guard against the use of a Wacky Weave Destabilizer. (Apparently these were used quite a bit as practical jokes by the audience before the actresses in traveling shows got wise).
- From Weregeek; when the leads are trapped in a house surrounded by zombies, Abbie orders everyone around in the fashion to most effectively avert zombie movie tropes while patching herself up. When the lead asks her how she even knows all this, Dustin says she's watched a lot of zombie movies while Abbie herself declares she's been training for this her whole life.
- Sluggy Freelance takes a new path to crazy [1]. Let's not forget, that the path to crazy takes a dangerous detour towards sane.
- In the world of Digger, preparedness is practically an instinct to a wombat.
- Gill may be only eight, but he knows what's up.
- Butch Always carries a spare.
- Parodied in Skin Horse, where UNITY has spent a great deal of time planning strategies to fight historical figures. Pretty much all of them consist of, "Look a (something historically connected to the person in question)! Leg sweep!"
- The protagonist of Geist Panik has an entire display which features: a water gun in case of witches, a steak for vampires/tents, the sonic screwdriver for use against both Daleks and shelves, a crowbar for headcrabs, a fiddle in case of Satan, a nail-gun in case of Jesus, and a huge ass-gun in case of zombies/raptors/misc.
- In Casey And Andy strip 649, Quantum Crook is prepared for Quantum Cop despite not knowing he's also in 1886. Quantum Cop is, of course, prepared for Quantum Crook being prepared...
Web Original
- Kathleen Martin in Survival Of The Fittest v3 has spent years doing everything possible to prepare herself for the game just in case she's thrown in it, leading her to have many advantages in the game including survival techniques, knowledge of hand to hand combat, and skill in firearms. Of course, some say the handler takes it too far and makes her rather overpowered, as her only disadvantages are that she's paranoid and nobody likes her. It should be noted, though, that there are signs indicating that she is a parody of this character type, especially since her handler has already created one such parody (Josh Goodman).
- The Former System Administrator from Dave "Fargo" Kosak's Daily Victim is defined by this trope. No matter how outlandish the situation that's come up, he has planned for this contingency well in advance ("You see, you never want to fake a major organ failure to hijack an ambulance to a concert where you falsify medical documents and sneak into the trunk of your friend's car in a Spider-Man costume unless you're PREPARED for the eventuality that someone might get hurt if the car slams into a deer."). He always has a backup plan.
- Red Vs Blue: Simmons has a supply of food stored in his attic in case of zombies, he won't tell Grif what he'll do after the food runs out in case Grif becomes a zombie. Grif's plan is run to Alaska in the hope that any pursuing zombies freeze to death. Sarge however has thirty-seven zombie plans. 36 include using Grif to distract zombies. For the 37th plan he willingly becomes a zombie just to kill and eat Grif.
- The Evil Shakespeare Overlord List has the following requirement. Anyone who actually fulfills it qualifies.
I will have a contingency plan for outdoor plays in case of disasters other than weather. For instance: search helicopters looking for fugitives in the area. The actors are accomplished clog-dancers, but it's not fair to ask them to do that for the interim.
- All the family and (male) friends of the title character in The Saga Of Tuck. Up to and including weapons lockers, emergency (rotated) food stores and bicycles modified to carry the wounded when cars are useless.
- Phase, from the Whateley Universe. She has so much stuff in her utility belt that she's still running stuff by the tester for the holographic simulation system while all of her other teammates have gone through. Even the testers think she has too much gear. She's paying a deviser to make a tactical baton for her. Out of adamantium. Ouch.
Hive to Phase: Has it ever occurred to you that high school freshmen are not required to have more gear than Batman?
- Phase is getting like this in the Whateley Universe. When the team learns how to use the holographic simulators on campus, they have to show their holdouts. Phase has so many that everyone else has been checked out before he is done. He has a super-heavy throwing dart tipped with poison to use if he has to fight a flying brick with psychokinetic powers. And he has the antidote to the poison on him too.
Hive: Has it ever occurred to you that high school freshmen are not required to have more gear than Batman?
Western Animation
- Batman The Brave And The Bold gives us this conversation:
Jaime: OK OK, here's one. Poison Ivy has used her Mind Control spores on Superman to pit him against Batman. Oh, and Batman has no kryptonite. Who wins? Paco: Easy: Superman. Jaime: Wrong, Batman, by using his kryptonite. Paco: You just said he had no kryptonite. Jaime: Trick question. Batman always has kryptonite.
- This is also a Shout Out - the very situation actually came up in The Batman. He didn't have Kryptonite at the time, but started keeping it after this incident, with Supes' blessing.
- There's a fantastic example in the first season finale, where it appears that he has planned for the specific situation of "forced to team up with the Joker and use back-up vehicle" by including a big red button in that vehicle that would spray knock-out gas into the passenger seat, knowing that Joker wouldn't be able to resist pushing it. Thinking about that for a second makes you realize this is one of a very, very few scenarios in which that would come in handy.
- DCAU has one more person more Crazy Prepared than Batman....Amanda Waller she actually had an elaborate Xanatos Gambit Set up to 1. Overwrite the DNA of a random person with that of Bruce Wayne so that his kid would be a perfect genetic match of Bruce Wayne, 2. Try to have said person's Parents killed to further the Batman-ness and finally 3. Knew damn well that this person would not only eventually find her, but ask her about those events in question and still return to the mantle of the Bat
- DCAU Lex Luthor in general, but especially in the final season of Justice League Unlimited. The precise reason he can rule (or defeat) the villainous Legion - er, "Secret Society" - is that he's prepared, Batman-like, to counter everyone else on the team, usually by pressing a single button on his belt. (Fortunately for him, he was in effect handed the opportunity through his assigment to "augment" lesser members and in the process put in remote-controlled weakness.)
- Parodied in The Simpsons episode "Bart Gets An Elephant": when a peanut factory foreman spots the titular elephant approaching, he gives the following dramatic announcement:
Foreman: This is the moment we feared, people! Many of you thought it would never happen. But I insisted we spend two hours every morning training for it. You all thought I was mad. Many of you requested to be transferred to another peanut factory. But now we...[the elephant bursts through the door and crushes the foreman]
- In an episode that marked the beginning of An Arc in Reboot, "Nullzilla," Phong just happened to have a plan to deal with an out-of-control Godzilla-sized villain/Null amalgamation-thing running amok. It involved Humongous Mecha and an extended parody of both Sentai and Thunderbirds. This was appropriately lampshaded.
Dot: "Well, we know physical force can't hurt nulls. We'll have to try containment."
Phong: "Do not worry. I have prepared something for just such an emergency."
Bob: "You're prepared for a giant monster made entirely of nulls STOMPING AROUND MAINFRAME?"
Phong: "That is correct!"
Bob: "How do you plan for that?"
Phong: "Ah, lucky guess?"
- Later in the episode, Phong tells them to finish the monster with a weapon, but realizes that it's still in its glass case. The case reads "IN CASE OF GIANT NULL MONSTER THREATENING CITY — BREAK GLASS"
- In the Kim Possible episode "Rufus versus Commodore Puddles", Drakken attacks Area 51 with his dog, grown to 50 feet in height. The General in charge is perfectly calm and rattles off a plan number to deal with an attack by giant canine; the plan involved Howitzer-sized truck-mounted dog whistles, and stealth bombers loaded with giant milk bones, all of which were apparently pre-loaded in the hangars. Later after Rufus has dosed himself with the same rays (like you didn't see this coming), he rattles off another plan to cooperate with an enormous burrowing rodent.
- In an episode of The Fairly Odd Parents, Timmy, Cosmo and Wanda need to be rapidly transported to Texas. As they use a conveniently-located escape pod to Texas in Timmy's bedroom, Cosmo smugly says to Wanda "And you said the escape pod to Texas was a bad idea!" She also said the second escape pod to Texas was a bad idea.
- Foghorn Leghorn after a Non Fatal Explosion: "Fortunately, I keep my feathers numbered for just such an occasion." He has also been known to carry around "a spare suit" of feathers, that he slips on like a giant onesie.
- Harry Dresden from The Dresden Files has quoted Foghorn Leghorn on one occasion when he pulled something similar out of thin air, as he's wont to do. Much like Foghorn, it's not so much a case of being Crazy Prepared as it is of being Genre Savvy and always keeping a little something in reserve.
"Paranoid? Maybe. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon out there waiting to eat your face."
- Carl in an episode of Jimmy Neutron.
Sheen: Gee, wish I had one of those air-freshener things you hang in a car.
Carl: [holding some up] Lemon? Or strawberry?
Sheen:[taking them] Thanks! Wait...why do you carry those around with you?
Carl:[averting eyes] ...'Cuz...
- Megas XLR: In one episode, Coop is forced to choose between "Crush Moth-like Bug" or "Anti Coccoon," neither of which are situations most people would expect, let alone design entire commands for.
- Lampshaded in Hoodwinked where the Mountain Goat constantly brags about how he's prepared for whatever may come. He even sings a song about the importance of it all (Be prepared, be prepared, this lesson must be shared...) Granny counts too, since she carried "a bit of this, a bit of that, a bit haz-mat"...
- Played for laughs in Word Girl. WordGirl and Captain Huggyface apparently have a plan for everything, and WordGirl only has to shout "Huggy! Plan ###" and they put it in action... in theory. But, half the time, Huggy can't remember what she wants to do at all (and she has to say something like "You know, the one with the trampoline...?") and often the Narrator will question her about why she felt the need to plan for something so unlikely.
- This was subverted in, "A Simple Plan," when she didn't have a formed plan to escape a metal cage. When you look at other plans (like, "Have Huggy eat the statue made of meat") this seems crazy. Instead, she rattled off parts of other plans — "How about the first part of 344? Or you could do 66 backwards with a little bit of 12 thrown in..."
- Danny Phantom where the Fenton Works is literally prepared from head to toe with both offense and defensive weapons and shields to protect/do ungodly harm towards anything ghost-related; either small or a large scale invasion. It's utilized several times and at one point, used against the Guys in White.
- Danny and his mother are headed to a mother-son science symposium and she turns out to have camping gear as well as a vast array of ghost-hunting equipment on her (despite wearing a skintight jumpsuit)... but no mobile phone.
- To keep Nermal from feeding his guppy refrigerator food, Garfield weaves a tale of giant radioactive mutant guppies in the sewers. Despite the fact that Garfield told it as a lie, he has nevertheless stashed a barrel of tartar sauce in the garage in the event that they should make their way above ground and attack. The fact that he doesn't also have handy about 600 pieces of lemon or enough fries to go with them reduces not the scale of Crazy Prepared-ness one whit.
- In Storm Hawks, Stork, due to his paranoia, has the Condor armed with a myriad of traps. Although his crew mates complain, these preparations eventually do prove to be useful, allowing him to gloat.
- In Animaniacs Wakko has a gagbag which contains anything that the situation calls for including a refrigerator filled with food, a working toilet and an endless supply of weapons.
- In an episode of Scooby Doo (as in the original 60s/70s cartoons), Daphne, Velma, and Freddy are captured and locked on a wall chain by ghost pirates. At this time, Freddy just happened to have gum and a bunch of straws to reach a key on the other side of the room/cave.
- Megatron, in any of the many Transformers incarnations, where he proves to be a cunning schemer whose steel trap mind conceives and implements plan upon counterplan upon contingency plan. So the original Megatron got trapped in earth's prehistoric past for millions of years, locked in the perpetually frozen remains of a failed assault on the autobots? No problems! He had already planted a message on the golden disk of the earth deep space satellite Voyager, detailing the location of prehistoric earth so that his future namesake could find Optimus Prime and attempt to murder him to alter the very course of history. Yes, he had planned for that eventuality!
- In Captain N: The Game Master, Simon Belmont can occasionally seem like this due to his backpack serving as a Bag Of Holding.
- In Phineas and Ferb, the Fireside Girls are almost always present helping with whatever scheme it is. This is aided by their handbook, which has entires on almost everything - including Time Travel and Car Engines.
- There was an episode of Spongebob Squarepants where Spongebob and Patrick were wearing anti-searhinoceres undergarments. Considering they weren't expecting a seabear appearing (which is what sets off searhinocereses) and they were only several feet from their house, they were really prepared.
- Ms. Frizzle. First off, she has a bus (magical) that can turn into anything she needs it to, various random ray guns that do- well, whatever she needs a ray gun for (shrinking, growing, etc.), plans for various field trips- and, hey, if they happen to teach her kids at the same time, there is no problem with that! Her house just.... her house, and all of her dresses that just so "happen" to have the proper pattern for that days lesson plan. Well, unless she only has a few dresses that are like a chameleon, and change patterns to whatever she needs it to, but then WHY does she have them???
- In an episode of Sabrina The Animated Series, the protangonists are trapped in a castle with a lot of vampires. They make a really loud noise to break all the windows, letting the sunlight in. The head vampire simply presses a button on his throne, and the suits of armor all cover the windows with their shields. Somebody goes, "You've got to be kidding me".
- In an episode of Chip And Dale Rescue Rangers, Wrench Wench Gadget and another character are trapped in a glass tank. She pulls out a glass cutter bigger than she is and escapes, leading to the classic exchange:
"Do you always carry a glass cutter around with you?"
"No, only when I need to cut glass."
Other
- One J.R. Mooneyham has a rather eclectic web site, containing things ranging from supposedly autobiographical stories of his supercar racing days, through survivalist essays and advice for living cheap, all the way to a detailed speculative timeline of world history/prehistory/future history and a Science Fiction novel starring the author's alter ego. There are certainly examples of Crazy Prepared, both in the fiction and the non-fiction. For instance, see the insanely detailed description of the extensive security measures of a fictional research lab.
- Legendary Usenet poster 'Gharlane of Eddore' (not to be confused with the other Gharlane) once wrote a post detailing his design for "Standard Generic Monster Load", bullets intended to let you be prepared for almost any conceivable supernatural emergency:
Gharlane: Silver bullet; hex-scored jacketed hollow-point filled with a gel made of Holy Water, wolfsbane, garlic, fugutoxin and curare, laced with dimethyl sulfoxide to provide tractor-solvent Spreading Factor. Traditionalists can also cut crosses in the bases of the bullets, and have them blessed by a priest. .44 magnum 240-grain load over the standard Elmer Keith hunting load, 24 grains of IMR 2400. (The manual says 21.8 grains is maximum, so don't use the 24-grain load if you have a cheap revolver.) These work reliably on Vampires, Werewolves, the generic Undead, and Evil Human Minions like Renfield, with sublime indifference.
Real Life
- Despite what your math teachers may have said, calculus is this. Very few professions require differential calculus on a regular basis. Even engineers avoid it as best as they can, but when you need, and you have it, it's pretty awesome.
- Jon Pinette has a standup routine where he explains that he knows how to say "Feed me I'm starving" in 26 languages. 27 if you count Ancient Heirogliphics, just in case he gets sent into the past, he wants his bases covered!
- Personal anecedotes are in Troper Tales:Crazy Prepared
- Zombie Squad is a disaster-preparedness organization that uses the Zombie Apocalypse concept as a metaphor for the importance of preparing for a natural disaster, on the precept that if one is prepared for the total collapse of civil order due to an invasion of the living dead, one is prepared for anything. People being prepared for a zombie invasion is completely justified, since no rational human being could scrape together a plan of action while being chased by the ravenous undead.
- Alpha Disaster Contingencies a.k.a: The Rubicon take a more Cozy Catastrophe approach to disaster preparedness. Even the basic guides on the publicly available part of the website are impressive in terms of demonstrating a lifestyle which is reasonably comfortable, yet still viable in the event of a major disaster.
- This is sorta a Truth In Television. The U.S. government does in fact pay people to come up with plans for any possibility. Global flooding, alien invasion, etc. One of those contingency plans addresses the possibility of an attempted takeover of the United States of America by the Girl Scouts.
- Not quite the same thing, but military academies also apparently study contingencies such as "What if would you do if you were Napoleon Bonaparte... With Stealth Bombers?"
- Milkman Conspiracy. Tim Schafer was on to something there...
- All modern militaries will do this (perhaps not for the most extreme examples, but still). Well into the 20th Century the US, Canada and the United Kingdom maintained plans for war between Canada and the US, the UK and the US, or the UK and Canada against the US, even when the actual possibility of anyone actually considering such a war seemed stupid. On the other hand, the Pacific War in World War II largely proceeded in accordance with plans the US had in place since the 1920s for just such a situation. To large extent, these are the results of training courses in various military command colleges, since the best way to teach officers how to draw up plans is to have them draw up plans. Once you have the plans, well, it doesn't cost anything to hang on to them, and you never know; even if the specific event is ludicrously impossible, there might be aspects to it that turn out to be useful. Also, the plans for the US going to war with Canada most likely wasn't done so much because they anticipated it, but to make the more seriously-made plans (those involving Germany and Japan) less controversial.
- After WW 2, Admiral Nimitz said "The war with Japan had been [enacted] in the game room here by so many people in so many different ways that nothing that happened during the war was a surprise," he said, " – absolutely nothing except the Kamikaze...".
- Did anyone ask him about Pearl Harbor?
- While researching for World War Z Max Brooks consulted with a great number people in the military, it turns out that pretty much everyone has a zombie contingency plan (even if they aren't official).
- As referenced in the Scottish wiki, the plan to invade Canada evolved during a time when Canada was still part of the British Empire. It was feared that a successful conquest of the British Empire would require an occupation of Canada to prevent an invasion by a hostile military force.
- Likewise, the point isn't the Girl Scouts, it's how do you deal with asymmetric warfare against enemies that even the best trained soldiers will most likely be unwilling to kill because they'd be going up against one of the deepest rooted taboos we have.
- There are training exercises involving an assault by ghosts. The purpose is to encourage out-of-the-box thinking and to teach command initiative in a surprise situation where no one has any idea what to do by the book.
- One example of the "Alien Invasion" preparations was shown on a Discovery channel special. One federally issued emergency services manual includes directions on how firemen and paramedics should respond to a Flying Saucer crashing into a kindergarten. The manual apparently warns about psychic assault, radioactive materials, etc.
- However, NASA has not created a plan for dealing with the impact of a large meteor, which even they have admitted is very likely (at least compared to other entries on the list).
- Freeman Dyson's son has however been in contact with people in NASA that keep the knowledge on Orion systems around. Turns out a project he was working on compiling interviews and data from the now mostly dead scientists had over 2,000 pages of documents purchased by NASA just in case. Project Orion was a project to use nuclear bombs, several per second, to propel a space craft. In theory the ideal ship is a hemisphere a half mile in radius with 6 feet of solid steel. It's considered our only real hope in taking out a killer meteor or hostile alien spacecraft. Nuclear bombs, plural.
- Darkly parodied in Tom Clancy's Executive Orders. After the US is attacked by a Japanese terrorist, President Ryan happens upon the contingency plan to attack Japan. He orders it destroyed. The narration notes they're just going to file it away.
- An extended discussion on this very topic was held on E2, and the consensus was that in this situation, the correct action was to, at that very moment, think of a password. Your future self will then tell you it, since he is of course from the future, and probably remembers that day people from the future showed up. That only works if time travel runs as a Stable Time Loop. Otherwise the appearance of your time travelling future self changes history; any password you think up after he appears is not part of his own past.
- The motto of the Boy Scouts of America, as well as several other Scouting organizations (up to and including USSR Pioneers), is "Be Prepared.". Derived, of course, from the original British Organisation's motto. The founder of the Scouting movement, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, was once asked "Be prepared for what?" His reply was "Why, for any old thing."
- That's the abridged version. The official explanation by Baden Powell is even more Crazy Prepared:
Be Prepared in Mind by having disciplined yourself to be obedient to every order, and also by having thought out beforehand any accident or situation that might occur, so that you know the right thing to do at the right moment, and are willing to do it.
Be Prepared in Body by making yourself strong and active and able to do the right thing at the right moment, and do it.
- This gets even darker when you look at what Baden-Powell did for a living (British general/spy) and the era in which he was active the leadup to WWI, when the ominous threat of a continental alliance led by either Germany or Russia was the greatest threat to Britain. Hell, there are still some reports that hold that the British boy scouts were considered a priority source for an irregular army in the field against an invasion. And you thought that those wilderness drills were just for show...
- Norway has recently taken this to heart with the construction of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which stores seeds of various plants in the event of a major regional or worldwide catastrophe.
- The moon as a backup drive for human civilization
- There's a book out there that details how to deal with a robot uprising, with information from experts in robot technology.
- Asimov actually created the three laws of robotics and mandated that they be used in his entire fictional repertoire to eliminate the possibility of this. Said possibility of robotic uprising is discussed many times in the course of his many books and short stories.
- In World War II, the British government had Clan MacLeod prepare to summon a magical army of wish-granting fairies to save the world in the event of amphibious German invasion.
- "Portable" applications for flash drives seem like a digital version of this trope. While hauling around an anti-virus, computer diagnostic tools, web browser and IM messaging software is sensible if you use public computers often, the full PortableApps.com app catalogue includes a digital planetarium, web server, DVD menu authoring tool and a fully-functional version of the
Mac OS 7 Macintosh System 7 operating system "on a stick."
- There's a beta version of a portable IRC daemon on there somewhere.
- Crazy prepared poster. Note that it assumes that our time traveler stashed some tungsten.
- Explorer Roald Amundsen was famous for his preparations, which tends to make his part of the "race to the pole" seem a little dull. In addition to carrying and stashing far more supplies than he would need (and setting out flags 10 miles to either side of his depots). Before he ever left Norway, he developed a recipe to use "just in case" he had to feed his dogfood to his men.
- Turned on its head in the real life anecdote of King Mithridates. Fearing poisoning, Mithridates began systematically dosing himself with every known poison, a little at a time until he could eat and drink in ease as his would-be assassins looked on. Unfortunately, he was eventually deposed and imprisoned, where he tried to commit suicide by, you guessed it, poisoning. As the poem goes, "Mithridates, he died old."
- Truth In Televison: Many Australian 4WDers are crazy prepared when it comes to fuel and repairs, often making space for a decent chunk of an entirely new engine should the need arise. Justified when you consider that the last vestige of civilisation was last week, and you're still a day from the nearest fuel stop.
- Catholic Priests are trained to be prepared for just about anything that happens during Mass. There are guidelines on every eventuality from what to do in case of gunfire to what to do in the event of an insect plopping itself into the Precious Blood. Probably a consequence of Seen It All.
- These. Hey, you never know when a couple dozen feet of rope will come in handy!
- Most American states now have "shall-issue concealed carry" laws, allowing ordinary people to get a license to carry a concealed handgun. Every day there are thousands of regular folks in the U.S. walking around in grocery stores and shopping malls with loaded guns, Just In Case.
- Note that the "case" tends to happen in places where the perp knows people aren't allowed to exercise this trope. That should tell us something.
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