History Main / LongGame

* The plan of the Reapers in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' trilogy is such a Long Game that it involves ''the cyclical rise and fall of galactic civilizations''. [[spoiler:The entire Mass Relay system is a trap designed to guide the galaxy's technological development and funnel space-faring species to the Citadel which they will make their capital. When the galaxy reaches a certain technological threshold the Reapers invade the Citadel to decapitate the government and then spread outwards, harvesting the knowledge, tech, and biomass of the galaxy create more Reapers. They then leave, making sure enough ruins of the destroyed civilizations remain that the next ones to follow will be drawn to the Citadel.]] Curiously, the events of [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 the first game]] only occur because the current cycle was delayed by the Protheans. Sovereign was desperately trying to put things back on track.
** The eventual reveal of the Reaper's origin in [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 the third game]] shows [[spoiler: that the Catalyst, the AI built by the Leviathans presumably about a ''billion'' years ago, was playing the longest game of all. It planned the cycle of extinction, that its creations, the Reapers, perpetuated, as an experiment to see if there was some solution to the organic vs synthetic life struggle that always seemed to occur, that it hadn't considered. As long as the Reapers succeeded, the cycle would continue, but the construction of the Crucible by the organics was unprecedented in any of the previous cycles, which changed the variables of the Catalyst's considerations and gave way to new options for solving the organic/synthetic dilemma]].

* The plan of the Reapers in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' trilogy is such a Long Game that it involves ''the cyclical rise and fall of galactic civilizations''. [[spoiler:Their goal is reproduction. They invade the Milky Way every time that space-faring species' make it to a certain point of technological development, harvesting the knowledge, tech, and biomass of these species to create more Reapers. They then leave the galaxy, making sure to leave enough ruins of the destroyed civilizations that the next ones to follow will develop similar technologies that are easy to counter because of their shared origins.]] Curiously, the events of [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 the first game]] only occur because the current cycle was delayed by the Protheans. Sovereign was desperately trying to put things back on track.

* ''Manga/MariaNoDanzai'': Maria Akeboshi [[BestServedCold plays the long game in her revenge]] against [[GangOfBullies the bullies]] that tortured her son and murdered him. She picks off her future victims carefully, choosing to start with [[DirtyCoward the two]] that [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere would most likely run at the first sign of danger]] while saving the other three for later because she knows they would stand their ground against her. [[CrazyPrepared She also has plans]] both for when the bullies realize that someone's after them and even for when the police become involved in investigating the two deaths she has caused so far. Maria has completely discarded her mercy and replaced it with patience.

* ''Manga/MariaNoDanzai'': Mari Nagare played the long game in her revenge against the demons that tortured her son and murdered him. Once a happily married housewife and loving mother with a great relationship with her son Kiritaka Nagare, unknown to her husband and herself, her son was being inhumanly tortured by a group of satanic bullies. Eventually, her son is killed in a prank gone wrong, and investigators tell her and her husband that he committed suicide because of abusive parents. Heartbroken, she blames herself for her son's death, but then she reads his journal and learns the truth that bullies killed him in a prank gone wrong. She swore to avenge her son, saying that revenge is too soft and she will give them judgment. She threw away her life, divorced her husband, cut ties with her friends and workplace, got plastic surgery, and changed her name to her maiden name, Maria Akeboshi. Two years later, Maria became a nurse at the school the bullies attended and built a reputation as a saint like nurse to avoid suspicion. She did her homework on the bullies, too, using her son's journals and her own research to learn the bullies, habits, crimes, and sins to destroy their lives and break them emotionally before killing them. She even chooses her future victims carefully, choosing the two that would most likely run at the first sign of danger while saving the other three for later because she knows they would stand their ground against her. She has plans for when the bullies realize that someone's after them and even has plans for when the police are involved in investigating the two deaths she has caused so far.

* ''Manga/MariaNoDanzai'': Mari Nagare played the long game in her revenge against the demons that tortured her son and murdered him. Once a happily married housewife and loving mother with a great relationship with her son Kiritaka Nagare, unknown to her husband and herself, her son was being inhumanly tortured by a group of satanic bullies. Eventually, her son is killed in a prank gone wrong, and investigators tell her and her husband that he committed suicide because of abusive parents. Heartbroken, she blames herself for her son's death, but then she reads his journal and learns the truth that bullies killed him in a prank gone wrong. She swore to avenge her son, saying that revenge is too soft and she will give them judgment. She threw away her life, divorced her husband, cut ties with her friends and workplace, got plastic surgery, and changed her name to her maiden name, Maria Akeboshi. Two years later, Maria became his nurse at the school the bullies attended and built a reputation as a saint like a nurse to avoid suspicion. She did her homework on the bullies, too, using her son's journals and her own research to learn the bullies, habits, crimes, and sins to destroy their lives and break them emotionally before killing them. She even chooses her future victims carefully, choosing the two that would most likely run at the first sign of danger while saving the other three for later because she knows they would stand their ground against her. She has plans for when the bullies realize that someone's after them and even has plans for when the police are involved in investigating the two deaths she has caused so far.

* ''Manga/MariaNoDanzai'': Mari Nagare played the long game in her revenge against the demons that tortured her son and murdered him. Once a happily married housewife and loving mother with a great relationship with her son Kiritaka Nagare, unknown to her husband and herself, her son was being inhumanly tortured by a group of satanic bullies. Eventually, her son is killed in a prank gone wrong, and investigators tell her and her husband that he committed suicide because of abusive parents. Heartbroken, she blames herself for her son's death, but then she reads his journal and learns the truth that bullies killed him in a prank gone wrong. She swore to avenge her son, saying that revenge is too soft and she will give them judgment. She threw away her life, divorced her husband, cut ties with her friends and workplace, got plastic surgery, and changed her name to her maiden name, Maria Akeboshi. Two years later, Maria became his nurse at the school the bullies attended and built a reputation as a saint like a nurse to avoid suspicion. She did her homework on the bullies, too, using her son's journals and her own research to learn the bullies, habits, crimes, and sins to destroy their lives and break them emotionally before killing them. She even the future victims carefully, choosing to two look like ours and would like to run at the first sign of danger. She has plans for when the boys realize that someone's after them and even has plans for when the police are involved in investigating the two deaths she has caused so far.

* In ''Fanfic/BreathOfTheWild'', [[spoiler:a 10,000-year-old Sheikah Monk reveals to Impa that the Great Calamity was unavoidable, and is in fact part of an ancient ploy started by the Golden Goddesses to ensure that Calamity Ganon isn't just sealed away, but the very curse that created him by corrupting Ganondorf's soul is destroyed]]. Impa is ''not'' comfortable with this fact.

* Another famous example was the revenge plot of UsefulNotes/The47Ronin of Japan. After their daimyo had committed {{seppuku}} in disgrace, the Emperor forbade them from seeking vengeance against the man who'd caused it. Thus, over the course of a year, debased themselves and made it ''appear'' as though they were abiding by that decision. Then, when their target finally let his guard down, they assassinated him. The country was torn over whether they had acted dishonorably by violating the Emperor's decree, or honorably for their display of UndyingLoyalty.

* ''Series/OhsamaSentaiKingOhger'': [[spoiler: It is revealed that Racules has been planning the downfall of Dagded Dujardin ever since the "Fury of the Gods" event, which occurred seventeen years in-universe, orchestrating events all for the moment he would obtain the power to strike him down. The very next episode revealed that this in of itself was the accumulation of a ''2000 year-old'' plan that his family has been working towards.]]

* ''Series/OhsamaSentaiKingOhger'': [[spoiler: It is revealed that Racules has been planning the downfall of Dagded Dujardin ever since the "Fury of the Gods" event, which occurred seventeen years in-universe, orchestrating events all for the moment he would obtain the power to strike him down.]]

** Most notably, during the eighth generation the gaming press repeatedly hammered down Nintendo's reputation claiming they were in deep financial trouble when in reality, despite the UsefulNotes/WiiU's failure, they were allegedly bigger than their competitors combined. This stems from the fact that the gaming press flat out ignored the large amount of exclusive games sold for the Wii U (more than the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne despite the differences in console sales) and the gigantic market share of the handheld UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS, the system that truly dominated that generation. But instead of joining the bragging competition, Nintendo largely stayed quiet, banking on their image and avoiding stirring up much controversy to keep their fanbase mollified for the time being. Eventually, the release of the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch revealed that the company had learned a ''lot'' of lessons from the Wii U, with the new hybrid console going on to become the third-best-selling console of all time.
* Microsoft arguably played this game with Sony during the Format Wars; Blu-Ray was quickly touted as the industry standard for disc-based media, particularly high-definition home video. And while it jacked up the price a bit, the Playstation 3 had the advantage of being a cheap Blu-Ray player. The PS2 got a major bump by doubling as a cheap DVD player, so the PS3 was poised for similar success. Still, Microsoft pushed forward with the HD-DVD format and got enough movie studios on their side where they were able to encroach on Blu-Ray's market base a bit. In the end though, Blu-Ray won out and HD-DVD was discontinued...just when XBox 360 won an exclusive streaming deal with Netflix, making the 360 a primo streaming device just as that was entering the marketplace. There are strong arguments to be made that HD-DVD was just Microsoft's way of creating confusion amongst consumers while they perfected digital downloads, which Microsoft could capitalize on thanks to the XBox brand and their dominance in the PC market. And Microsoft also had deep enough pockets where they could afford to lose money on HD-DVD if it meant a bigger profit with streaming down the line.

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', [[BigBad Father]] manipulated [[spoiler:the policies and alchemic knowledge available to Amestris]] over the course of five hundred years in order to fulfill his scenario. [[spoiler:The tense border relations with other countries, the constant expansion under Bradley, and the deliberate suppression of certain alchemic knowledge were all arranged to create a country-wide alchemic circle that would consume the life energy of its 40 million inhabitants]]. And [[spoiler:[[BigGood Van Hohenheim]] prepared for almost as long to counter Father's plan after overcoming his initial HeroicBSOD]].

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Darth Sidious is absolutely into this as well, willing to wait decades to take power over the galaxy. The Clone Wars specifically were this, given that he was willing to wait 10 years for his clone army to be grown.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'': The Aschen enslave planets over the course of hundreds of years. They give the populations advanced medical treatments which cure all ailments and extend lifespans [[spoiler: but also cause infertility, bringing the population down to a more easily conquerable number.]]

* Creator/{{Nintendo}} is a practitioner of this trope, other gaming companies base their sales on really inflated hype, fan discussions, claims of graphic power and the idea of releasing games for "Hardcore audiences" while Nintendo keeps producing games aimed to the general population while using slightly outdated technology more notable for the combination of gadgets themselves, still, they have managed to stay at the front of the gaming world for 30+ years based on their safe practices. Fans show no signs of tiring of several venerable Nintendo flagship franchises, probably helped by the somewhat leisurely pace of new releases.
** Most notably, during the eighth generation the gaming press repeatedly hammered down Nintendo's reputation claiming they were in deep financial trouble when in reality, despite the UsefulNotes/WiiU's failure, they were allegedly bigger than their competitors combined. This stems from the fact that the gaming press flat out ignored the large amount of exclusive games sold for the Wii U (more than the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne despite the differences in console sales) and the gigantic market share of the handheld UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS, the system that truly dominated that generation. But instead of joining the bragging competition Nintendo just let it slide as they are conscious of their image and take measures to make sure their fanbase doesn't become too heated up.

* Creator/VernorVinge's ''Literature/TheChildrenOfTheSky'': Ravna's overly narrow focus on her Long Game of developing technology to prepare for the arrival of the [[EldritchAbomination Blight's fleet]], to the exclusion of developing medical technology that would help the humans trapped in the medieval-level Tines World with her, is what ultimately allows [[spoiler:Nevil Storherte]] to paint her as a dangerous lunatic and wrest political control from her. This works mostly because Ravna is the only surviving human to have faced the Blight firsthand, so she knows how dangerous it is; to everyone else, her Long Game simply doesn't make sense.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/FoundationSeries'':

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', [[BigBad Father]] manipulated [[spoiler:the policies and alchemic knowledge available to Amestris]] over the course of five hundred years in order to fulfill his scenario. [[spoiler:The tense border relations with other countries, the constant expansion under Bradley, and the deliberate suppression of certain alchemic knowledge were all arranged to create a country-wide alchemic circle that would consume the life energy of its 40 million inhabitants]]. And [[spoiler: [[BigGood Van Hohenheim]] prepared for almost as long to counter Father's plan after overcoming his initial HeroicBSOD.]]
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'', Celestial Being's plan has been building for nearly two centuries by the time the series happens. We only see the tail end of it. All of it was planned out by Aeolia Schenberg prior to his death (he had the good sense to put a quantum supercomputer in charge of it afterward, so it could [[XanatosSpeedChess adjust the scenario as needed]]).
* [[spoiler:Black Zetsu]] of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' spent centuries manipulating [[spoiler:the Senju and Uchiha clans, as well as any texts referring to the Ootsutsuki family]] in order to bring about his ultimate goal of [[spoiler:resurrecting Kaguya]]. Naruto is pissed at the notion that he claims the credit for so many major historical events.

* In ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'', it's revealed at the end that [[spoiler: almost ''everything'' that happened after the first chapter was part of Luthor's master plan to bring down Superman. Including Superman taking over the Soviet Union, ruling for forty years and bringing nearly the whole world under Soviet control, the USA splintering and heading to the brink of collapse, and an attempted Soviet invasion of Washington DC. ''All'' to hit Superman with an ArmorPiercingQuestion at exactly the right time, and destroy his will to conquer.]]

* ''Fanfic/ThePowersOfHarmony'': Piro says that since she's an immortal, Celestia does this by default (even using the term), forcing her to be a [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] and treat mortals like pawns. [[spoiler: Of course, she's just aiding [[SealedGoodInACan Harmony's]] own Long Game to free herself and purify [[EvilCounterpart Discord]], which has been going on for roughly ''nine thousand years''.]]
* Celestia's plans in ''FanFic/DiariesOfAMadman'' are being played out over thousands of years. Discord's plan has been going on for ''millions'' of years.
* A tagline for ''Fanfic/TheShadowWars'' is "Celly plays a long game." And for good reason.
* ''[[FanFic/MLPNextGenerationKnowFear MLP Next Generation: Know Fear!]]'': While the war with the griffons appears to be a result of recent diplomatic failures, it soon becomes apparent that the griffons have been preparing for the war for a long time. The [[DeepCoverAgent Pretenders]], for instance, have been infiltrating Cloudsdale for ''three years''.
** The [[FanFic/MLPNextGenerationLoveConquersAllAvariceTakesItAll first sequel]] reveals that the griffons have in fact been planning the conquest of Equestria by force for ''centuries''.
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'': Doctor Strange has been running one for a ''long'' time (Huginn and Muninn use the term at one point), aided by both his longevity and the fact that he's a time traveller ''and'' a seer. To put this long game in perspective, this story's truly massive GambitPileup (see [[GambitPileup/ChildOfTheStorm its page]] - yes, ''page'' - for details) is implied to be only a ''small'' part of what he's up to. The final chapter of Book I finally confirms that he's been working to stop Thanos. Chapter 20 of the sequel reveals how old he is: [[spoiler: 500,000 or more, probably. He actually stopped bothering to count around 100,000.]]
* The ''Series/GameOfThrones'' story ''Winter Comes'' has the Night King (a SelfInsert in this story) pulling a long game that has been going on for thousands of years and will continue for thousands more. By this point, almost the entirety of the North knowingly serves him and when Theon's forced into service, he notes the entirety of the Night's Watch not only serve but are also all Wildlings. Theon's forced to wonder just how long things have been going on that such a thing never struck him as odd.
* In ''Fanfic/GuardiansWizardsAndKungFuFighters'', the Ludmoore family has been working on a plan for the better part of two centuries. While the exact details aren't all known yet, it has involved PlayingBothSides of the Meridian civil war, and a slip of the tongue by one brother suggests [[spoiler: that it involves taking on Kandrakar itself]]. An OriginsEpisode posted as one of the first season's epilogue chapters reveals that their ultimate goal is [[spoiler: exposing a DarkSecret about something Kandrakar and the Escanors did on Meridian a thousand years ago, learning of which led to their ancestor Jonathan Ludmoore's banishment to Earth]].
* ''FanFic/WishCarefully'': Instead of trying to battle the Death Eaters after Dumbledore's death, Harry and his friends decide ToWinWithoutFighting and do the next best thing: leave Magical England to Voldemort and his forces to do as they please, and leave to build their own nation elsewhere. Within a few generations, the Death Eater-run Magical England is in a death spiral due to the resulting economic collapse of the working class population leaving the country and the flaws of Pureblood supremacist ideology leading to GenerationalMagicDecline, all the while Harry and his friends and allies are prospering on their nation of exiles in the Pacific. Lucius himself, though not repentant for his actions, curses how collectively short-sighted they were, and the end of the story reveals that everyone is so desperate for some sort of solution that they're [[spoiler:plotting Voldemort's death]] in the hopes of fixing things.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10917821/1/The-questionable-burdens-of-leadership-of-a-troll-Emperor The (Questionable) Burdens of Leadership of a Troll Emperor]]'', Naruto and Xanna plan to conquer a universe while [[SelfImposedChallenge limiting usage of their godly powers]]. Their war against the Goa'uld alone lasts for six hundred years due to the duo taking the time to build up their empire from the Stone Age. Their plan isn't truly finished for another five hundred years, when technology advances to the point of making everyone TheNeedless, at which point they leave out of boredom and assign Oma as the new GodEmperor.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Enlightenments}}'', Dormin's plan to stop the Queen is to [[spoiler:give Wander drugs that render him sterile and wait for the Queen's current body to die of old age, since Wander is TheAgeless.]]

* In the ''Series/GameOfThrones'' fanfic ''Fanfic/IlLogicalConclusions,'' it's revealed in [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13558817/6/Il-Logical-Conclusions chapter six]] that just about '''everything''' in the history of Westeros from the Long Night onwards has been orchestrated by the Three-Eyed Raven and his predecessors in order to create a better world. The pinnacle of this centuries-long plan is Bran Stark, who not only inherits all the memory and power of the previous Three-Eyed Ravens, but also continues their work in manipulating everything from Season 5 onwards, gradually warping the personalities of the major players in the war so that it ends the way it does in "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS8E6TheIronThrone The Iron Throne]]" - all so he can take the throne and initiate the final stage of the plan over the next four years: [[spoiler: his transformation into a god.]]
* In ''Fanfic/BreathOfTheWild'', [[spoiler: a 10,000-year-old Sheikah Monk reveals to Impa that the Great Calamity was unavoidable, and is in fact part of an ancient ploy started by the Golden Goddesses to ensure that Calamity Ganon isn't just sealed away, but the very curse that created him by corrupting Ganondorf's soul is destroyed.]] Impa is ''not'' comfortable with this fact.

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* [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Nicol Bolas's]] bread and butter, being 25,000 years old, and all. Notably, his plan in the Gatewatch saga (which started all the way back in ''Alara'' and finally reached its zenith in ''War Of The Spark'') took place over the course of sixty years and spanned dozens of world and countless smaller schemes - and this was a ''rush-job'' by his standards, as he'd lost him immortality and was scrambling to get it back before his natural draconic lifespan (which is already immense by human standards) started catching up to him.
* In both Creator/WhiteWolf's TabletopGame/{{old|WorldOfDarkness}} and TabletopGame/{{new|WorldOfDarkness}} World of Darkness, elder vampires tend to play long games-- the older the vampire, the longer the game.
** One of the simpler ones concerns the Giovanni clan's efforts to bring about the Endless Night: active since the 16th century, the plan requires the harvesting of a hundred million departed souls, and has driven the Giovanni to set their hooks into almost every conceivable region of influence - all for the sake of kicking off a world war, just to complete their work.

* The plan of the Reapers in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' trilogy is such a Long Game that it involves ''the cyclical rise and fall of galactic civilizations''. [[spoiler:Their goal is reproduction. They invade the Milky Way every time that space-faring species' make it to a certain point of technological development, harvesting the knowledge, tech, and biomass of these species to create more Reapers. They then leave the galaxy, making sure to leave enough ruins of the destroyed civilizations that the next ones to follow will develop similar technologies that are easy to counter because of their shared origins.]] Curiously, the events of [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 the first game]] only occur because the current cycle was delayed by the Protheans. Sovereign was desperately trying to put things back on track.
** The eventual reveal of the Reaper's origin in [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 the third game]] shows [[spoiler: that the Catalyst, the AI built by the Leviathans presumably about a ''billion'' years ago, was playing the longest game of all. It planned the cycle of extinction, that its creations, the Reapers, perpetuated, as an experiment to see if there was some solution to the organic vs synthetic life struggle that always seemed to occur, that it hadn't considered. As long as the Reapers succeeded, the cycle would continue, but the construction of the Crucible by the organics was unprecedented in any of the previous cycles, which changed the variables of the Catalyst's considerations and gave way to new options for solving the organic/synthetic dilemma.]]
* In ''VideoGame/BioShock1,'' this is stated in an audio diary named The Longest Con by [[spoiler:Frank Fontaine]]. The con in question is [[spoiler:his guise of Atlas to eventually gain control of Rapture.]]
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX,'' it's revealed that Garland is playing one of these in his attempt to restore Terra and its people; [[spoiler: essentially, he's merged Terra with the planet Gaia, and has been slowly assimilating the souls of Gaia's own [[TheLifestream reincarnation-cycle]]. He's also been using his personal Angel of Death, Kuja, to start wars on Gaia so that souls can be siphoned into Terra at acceptable rates.]] This is a long game that has been running for over ''five thousand years.''

* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', the ancient superweapon Deus ''created humanity'' on the remote planet it crashed on.[[note]]Recreated, technically. Humans from Earth already existed, and they were transporting Deus aboard a massive ship which crashed into the planet the game takes place on. There was only one human survivor.[[/note]] Through a human avatar (Miang), Deus then manipulated the development of civilization for ''10,000 years'', solely for the purpose of using humans as "parts" to repair itself.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', it's eventually revealed that the Ascians have been working towards their goal for longer than ''recorded history''. [[spoiler:They seek to restore their god Zodiark, who was divided into thirteen pieces by the goddess Hydaelyn. To restore their god, the Ascians have manipulated societies throughout history from the shadows to trigger devastating Calamities which result in the "Rejoining" to slowly restore their god. They have so far succeeded in restoring seven pieces of Zodiark by causing seven Calamities]].
* A recurring element in ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' when it comes to plans to defeat the BigBad of a particular game:
** Thousands of years before ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'', [[GodOfGood Hylia]] sent the human survivors of a great war between her and the armies of [[GodOfEvil Demise]] up onto a floating outcrop of rock that became known as Skyloft while she sealed away the demons. She sent with them a sacred blade called the Goddess Sword that would be used by a future swordsman, Link, to fight the demons in the future while imbuing it with the spirit Fi to guide that swordsman. [[spoiler:She also had the Triforce sealed away in Sky Keep in Skyloft where the demons couldn't reach it]]. Most crucially, [[spoiler:she relinquished her divine form after a brutal battle against Demise so she could eventually be reincarnated as a mortal girl, Zelda, due to deities being forbidden from using the Triforce. She also arranged for her future incarnation to get into trouble on the surface so the swordsman would have a motivation to go down there and get things done. Zelda eventually seals herself in a crystal for thousands of years starting in the past to strengthen the current seal on Demise.]]
** Ten thousand years before ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', the Kingdom of Hyrule had the Sheikah tribe develop advanced {{Magitek}} to be used in battle against Calamity Ganon. When the Sheikah were banished out of fear of the power of that technology, the machines were buried underground in case they were needed again in a future generation. A number of Sheikah monks also sealed themselves away in the Shrines so that they could eventually help a future hero defeat Ganon again, which they do once Link completes their trials and gains their Spirit Orbs ten thousand years later. On a smaller timetable, the big Sheikah players who helped excavate and reactivate the Guardians and Divine Beasts ended up waiting a century for Link to emerge from the Shrine of Resurrection and get back to fighting Ganon; in the meantime, they kept important items that Link would need and researched ways of using and reclaiming the old technology.

* The goddess Rubiss in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestBuilders'' is playing one of these, resurrecting [[PlayerCharacter The Builder]] to help stabilize what's left of human society and give them some hope until [[TheChosenOne a Hero]] is born and fulfils their destiny to defeat the Dragonlord. Rubiss admits that with humanity in its current state, the circumstances of a Hero's birth may not come around for a thousand years yet. [[spoiler:The Builder has two problems with this: first, they've had enough flashbacks to realize this [[TheGodsMustBeLazy hands-off]] TheChosenOne [[YouCantFightFate Can't Fight Fate]] arrangement is what ''caused'' the current mess (the previous Hero chose the BadEnding of ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' just to avert ButThouMust and make a decision on his own for once in his life). Second, this makes everything the Builder accomplished [[ShaggyDogStory a meaningless stopgap]] and they don't much appreciate having put in that much effort AllForNothing. So they decide to ScrewDestiny and solve the problem themselves as soon as possible, no matter what Rubiss tries to tell them.]]

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' presents the ''entire 2008 Presidential Election'' as being a Long Game from both sides in order to pull off a diamond heist. The phrase "Long Game" is used to describe it in-story.
* In ''WesternAnimation/FairlyOddParents WesternAnimation/SchoolsOutTheMusical'', the Pixies have been manipulating [[UnwittingPawn Flappy Bob]] for 37 years - pretty much his entire life - as part of a plan to take over Fairyworld and the Earth. [[spoiler:It succeeds, but is ultimately undone after Flappy Bob realizes the Pixies have been using him and turns against them]].
* In the first ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' movie, [[spoiler: Bender plays his own version, the "long con."]] Emphasis on ''long''. [[spoiler: Bender's con lasted ''thousands of years''. For him at least.]]

* ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 TMNT 2012]]'': The Kraang have been playing a Long Game with Earth and its humans. Apparently, they uplifted apes into an intelligent species millions of years ago and spent the next several million years meddling with human DNA, in order to create a half-Kraang/half-human. For reasons we aren't quite sure of yet, this entity was needed to perfect their [[MutagenicGoo mutagen]] and transform Earth into a new Dimension X. Oh, and April O'Neil happens to be the result of this Long Game.
** It's worth mentioning that time in Dimension X flows a YearInsideHourOutside. So, while millions of years passed here on earth, it's possible that ''billions'' of years have passed in their home dimension.
* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': Sometime during the 50-year TimeSkip between seasons 4 and 5, Aku opted to do this after repeatedly losing to Jack. He destroyed every source of time travel on the planet, and then retreated back to his lair, planning to just wait it out until Jack [[VictoryByEndurance died of old age]]. It backfired; as a side effect of the spell Aku originally used to send Jack to the future, Jack is now [[TheAgeless biologically immortal]].

* The first Pinky And the Brain segment of ''WesternAnimation/Animaniacs2020'' has Brain come up with the idea to use viral internet memes to take over the world in 1998, which requires him [[TimePassesMontage to spend 22 years inventing all the required technology first]].

* Deconstructed in the ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' episode "Bohemian Rhapsody". Chessmaster Hex set a plan to enact revenge by using design defects against the Gate Corporation by giving criminals information to hijack the Astral Gate toll booths. It was all planned out to be enacted 50 years into the future, complete with chess pieces as a calling card of sorts. However, Jet notes that "...fifty years is a long time; Hex got old, then he got senile. He completely forgot about the traps that he himself had set." It's a case of a long game that ended up not coming to fruition simply because nobody can really plan what can happen to themselves in fifty years.
* Pretty much the protagonists' entire plot in ''LightNovel/{{Maoyu}}''. Maou realized that after a long period of total war, it didn't matter who won or what peace treaty was signed, the sudden loss of a large consumption market would result is a catastrophic economic collapse that would completely destroy both kingdoms. So when the Hero arrives to assassinate her in the first volume, she instead explains this and recruits him. The series chronicles their elaborate long con of trying to slow the war machine of both sides to the point peace is economically feasible.