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alt title(s): Taking A Third Option "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
Batman: I've made my choice... none of the above!
— The Batman, Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind
Sometimes a hero faces an agonizing decision where the apparent two choices are terrible, such as a Friend Or Idol Decision or a Sadistic Choice.
However, sometimes the hero can respond with, "I don't like those choices, I'm taking a third option!" It is usually something completely unorthodox or seemingly suicidal. Yet this typically turns out to be the best choice after all, and the day is saved completely.
Note that this will usually either be incredibly awesome, if the scriptwriters are clever, or incredibly stupid, if they're not. Deciding which examples are which is an exercise left to the reader.
This can be the hidden solution to a Secret Test Of Character. It's also one way to resolve a Debate And Switch and the only one of Cutting The Knot. If done poorly, it may fall victim to the Golden Mean Fallacy. Sometimes it's triggered by Heads Tails Edge. When the options are different sides in a conflict, taking a third option may lead to becoming Omnicidal Neutral.
Incidentally, this is how to deal with a Xanatos Gambit. A true Magnificent Bastard will have anticipated that, though.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- While he rarely lets enemies limit his freedom to just two options, the Magnificent Bastard Lelouch Lamperouge in Code Geass constantly turns the tide of seemingly lost engagements by doing what nobody would expect of him, i.e. always taking the hidden "third" option.
- A specific example of this came up in season 2, episode 8: With the re-creation of the Special Administrative Zone, Lelouch was stuck between several undesireable choices - abandon being Zero, get exiled from Japan, or start another battle that would give Britannia the excuse to come down on Japan even harder. The third option or maybe fourth: Trick the Britannians using a Literal Genie-type definition of Zero, then get a million of his supporters to dress in Zero costumes so that, rather than be exiled alone, he's free to take his army and the battle to Britannia.
- Lelouch is made of Crazy Awesome, if you haven't noticed already.
- Happens again in the Grand Finale, resolving an issue prominent throughout the series. Lelouch and Suzaku argued on what the proper solution was throughout. In the end, they both agreed on Zero Requiem.
- The ending of Darker Than Black leaves Hei with the choice whether to envelop Hell's Gate — and Japan with it — in his quantum powers, allowing the Contractors to exist without fear of interference but isolating Japan from the rest of the world (and possibly killing off every non-contractor inside), or do nothing and let the humans destroy Hell's Gate, killing off the other Contractors and returning the world to normal; this choice is Hei effectively choosing whether to be a Contractor or a human. He decides to pick 'both'; his personae, combined, ruin the weapon intended to destroy Hell's Gate. This breaks the masquerade in the process and leads to an open human/Contractor coexistence.
- Allegedly present in an episode of Trigun involving two lovers on the run from a slaver caravan. Said caravan is en route to a fortified city which will only grant entrance to travelers with a special key, which happens to be tattooed on one of the runaways' arm. The protagonists are faced with two options: help the couple elope, thereby stranding the caravan outside the city and condemning its inhabitants to slow death by starvation, or return them to the caravan, forcing them into a life of slaving and/or slavery. Instead, Vash fakes the runaways' deaths, thus allowing them to live free and sparing the caravan from responsibility for losing the key - nobody is going to blame them for the Six Million Double Dollar Man's actions. The trope is explicitly claimed in Nicholas Wolfwood's closing monologue: "All along I thought there had to be a sacrifice, but there was another answer: Vash the Stampede".
- Examined as the subject of ⅓'s episode of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, though focusing on everyday third options. You know, the ones where you cannot make up your mind in a choice between two desirable options, and ends up choosing a third, undisirable option instead, and then ends up regretting it later on... Everyone together now: I'M IN DESPAIR!! BEING TROUBLED WITH CHOOSING SOMETHING AND ENDING UP SELECTING A THIRD OPTION HAS LEFT ME IN DESPAIR!!
- WhileTengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, is fond of the heroes choosing difficult options, Episode 26 has a moment when the Anti-Spiral re-explains the consequences of using the Spiral power, then asks Simon if he is willing to destroy the universe for a "fleeting emotion." Simon grips his controls, glares through his star-glasses and declares he will save them both: the girl and the universe. Then he destroys the enemy by blasting through space and time.
- This was a common tactic of Gon, the Kid Hero of Hunter X Hunter. In particular, in the beginning, the three heroes find that Only Smart People May Pass through town on their way to the Hunter Exam, in the form of a purely hypothetical Sadistic Choice that must be answered immediately with an "A" or "B" response. The two Kid Heroes figure out, by carefully examining the rules for loopholes and using their Super Senses to hear someone that got a "right" answer screaming in the distance, that silence is the real right answer, as no such decision should be taken so lightly. They then have to explain this to The Watson, who only passed because his moral outrage initially stunned him into silence for the duration of the time limit - outrage because no such decision should be taken so lightly. Later, in one of the official rounds of the tourna- I'm sorry, I mean Exam, this trope is played much more straight. Having picked up another hero and a by-then-revealed Lovable Traitor, and progressing down a timed dungeon of trials on a strictly all-or-none basis, they are told they must choose between leaving two people behind (presumably the Lovable Traitor and one Nakama) and take the short path to victory, or all run out of time together taking the long path. Gon, being The Messiah, refuses either, and since the doors are right next to each-other, he gets them to open the door to the long path, and work together with the Lovable Traitor to dig through the wall to the short path.
- In Rave Master, the titular character had to choose between killing his girlfriend or dooming the whole of time to destruction at the hands of her out-of-control powers. Haru instead elects to Take A Third Option, sealing Ellie's powers to stop the threat and spare her life; his Well Intentioned Extremist opponent, having failed to consider such an alternative due to his eagerness to Shoot The Dog, is broken down in defeat. This trope also played a part in a Prophecy Twist that foresaw the scenario, but lacking appropriate context, implied that Haru really did Shoot The Dog.
- Gash in Gash Bell is given the choice of either saving a friend and dooming the rest of the world or letting the friend die and save the world from the threat. Of course, he takes the third option of first saving his friend, then the world.
- In an episode of Cowboy Bebop spike is given the choice of surrendering or watching a mook put a bullet in Faye's head. Considering Spike is known to be a gunslinger of godlike ability, and that he's pointing a gun straight at said mook's head, you'd think they'd have foreseen his taking the third option...
- Near the end of Case 6 of Ghost Hunt, the main cast finds out that the haunting is being caused by a a curse that the students of a school unknowingly put on the vice-principal. There are only two ways to end the haunting: allow the curse to complete, thus killing the VP, or turn the curse back on the students, possibly killing all of them in the process.] At first it seems like Naru is going to take the latter of those two options, but then he takes a third option: [[spoiler: he has Lin create effigies of all of the students, and those effigies are destroyed when the curse 'turns back on the students'.
- In Irresponsible Captain Tylor,Earth is caught up in an inter-galactic war. Tylor is put in command of the whole fleet,ready for the big face-off with the approaching enemy fleet. All-out conflict seems inevitable,and no-one is sure whom will come out the victor. When the time comes,he gives one order - "Full speed ahead". The enemy commander,Dom,who's his worthy opponent,gives the same order. Both sides are screaming at them to attack,all while the ships get closer and closer to each other. Their respective flagships get close enough for them to actually see each other,and Tylor goes to the window. Standing there,he sticks out his hand,as if to give the order to attack,and Dom does likewise. Gun batteries are readied. The tension is unbearable. Then Tylor slowly and deliberately salutes the enemy commander,who,seeing his plan,returns and holds the salute until their fleets pass harmlessly by. War averted,both sides win.
- Al of Fullmetal Alchemist does this while confronting Kimblee during a Crowning Moment Of Awesome fight/debate:
Kimblee: I see. Experiment thoroughly enough, and you may discover new laws [besides Equivalent Exchange] that the world must then abide by. That would mean there is a fourth option: "You lose your chance to return to normal, and fail to save the world."
- In Mahou Sensei Negima, Setsuna is forced by Evangeline in a Secret Test Of Character to either be a cold, limitless swordswoman to better serve her princess Konoka or take her happiness beside the girl and live her life in peace without protecting anything. She choose to have both.
- This comes up again in one of the most recent chapters, post 250, where Setsuna having lost, more or less, to the crazy swordswoman who's got a crush on her, believes she may actually have to give up on happiness, or leave protecting konoka to others. she fails to notice, and it fails to interrupt her inner conflict, when a weapon comes flying out of a nearby fight. she slices with weapon in half without even breaking stride, leaving dear konoka standing in awe. Konoka then proceeds to berate her, convinces her to make up her mind, and then we finally get the kiss we've all been waiting for. well, most fans have been waiting for...
- In Gundam Wing, Heero Yuy given the choice to either give Wing Gundam to his enemies or have them slaughter everyone in the colonies. What does he do? He calmly steps out of the cockpit, says his mission in life is over and pushes the self-destruction button, destroying his Gundam and almost killing himself in the process.
- Incredible that Busou Renkin hasn't been mentioned, with the tendency of Kazuki, the main character to always choose a third option, even actually calling them out loud while doing so in certain occasions. The series also cruelly mocks this by revealing Kazuki is really using a Black Kakugane and is actually Victor The Third. Yeah. The Third. Get it?
- In Bleach, Zangetsu asks Ichigo: "Do you want to fight? Or do you want to live?" Ichigo's answer to that is "I want to win!".
- In the terrible dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Misawa, who is now a snobby British intellectual, does this to his test proctor when presented cynically with this kind of choice in the first episode.
- In Buso Renkin, Kazuki is faced with the choice to either use the white kakugane on himself and save his own life, or use the white kakugane on Victor and save the world. With Papillon's help he comes up with a third option of simply making another white kakugane and saving them both, but of course the white kakugane doesn't work entirely on Victor. So obviously he comes up with the fourth option of sending them both to the moon and supposedly killing both of them.
- In the "Land of Adults" chapter of Kinos Journey, a little girl (a younger Kino) is given the choice between death and a brain surgery that will render her a cheerful slave to her job. Hermes offers her a third option: escape and become a traveler.
- Subverted in the original Yu-Gi-Oh!. Crazy Prepared Dark Malik sets up the Yugi v/s Brainwashed And Crazy!Jounochi duel in such a way that there can't be a third option to take. If one wins, the other dies by being thrown into the sea with his feet cuffed so he'll drown. If one tries to forfeit to help the other, both will die. If someone else tries to interfere from the outside? A girl ( Anzu) taken hostage and strapped to a seat near to the arena will be crushed to death by a HUGE metal box dangling over her head. How did this end up? Yugi debrainwashes Jounochi and sets himself to die. Jounouchi manages to save Yugi and sets himself to die. Either Shizuka (in the anime) or Kaiba (in the manga) rescue him. Oh, and Kaiba saves Anzu right before Jounouchi almost perishes.
- Played more straight in the final duel between Yugi and Yami Marik, where Yami Marik sets up a dark game where the winner would lose the soul of their host; however, unbeknownst to everyone but Yami Marik, Yami Marik could live without his host persona. This is foiled when Marik gains the spiritual strength to switch places with Yami Marik, and then surrenders, eliminating the evil personality for good.
- Happens in Akagi where Akagi wins a mah jongg game by basically making what would appear to be a stupid, illogical move. When asked to explain himself, he says "I'm not limited by your reasoning".
- Sailor Moon will find a way to save everyone, specifically in the anime. Even when every other soldier is captured, she's beaten to a pulp, and the ONLY way to save the world is to give the bad guys what they want, Usagi will use the power of love, the power of friendship, or straight-up luck to save the world and her friends—and usually the bad guy, too.
- Although this is heavily subverted in the Manga - Sailor Cosmos tries to take a third option by traveling to the past in the guise of Chibi-Chibi and convincing her past self to destroy the Galaxy Cauldron and the newborn Eldritch Abomination inside it. This is shot down when Sailor Moon realizes that destroying the cauldron won't actually fix anything - said Abomination would be destroyed, yes, but the scenario would just repeat elsewhere. So no matter what happens, millions will die in a war against an invincible enemy. ...yay?
- Prunus Girl: Ambiguously-crossdressing Aikawa puts Maki on the spot about what gender he regards him as by giving Maki a choice of two candies to feed him—to turn him into a boy or girl (respectively) in body and soul. Maki feeds Aikawa both.
- Attempted in Shitsurakuen. When Sora rescues Tomoko, Tomoko asks to be released back into slavery as she doesn't trust Sora's protection. Sora thinks about the situation and transfers Tomoko to a male accomplice for safety. The accomplice is actually the Big Bad in disguse. Oops.
- At the climax to the "Chapter of Egg" in Princess Tutu, Kraehe has captured Prince Mytho and challenges Tutu to a competition to win the affection of Mytho's feelings of love. What Kraehe is counting on is the fact that if Tutu confesses her love for Mytho, she will disappear. Of course, this is Princess Tutu, the show where the main character routinely uses her magical ballet dancing to accomplish her goals, so no points for guessing what happens next.
- In Saint Seiya, a rather beaten up Seiya is cornered by Dark Action Girl Shaina and one of the Silver Saints. Problem is, he's holding Saori in his arms and cannot fight directly since they're atop of a cliff and she'll inevitably get hurt. The enemy says: "Fight us or hand us the girl". What does Seiya do? He asks Saori if she trusts him, she says she does, and then they jump off the cliff together. Since it's late at night, Shaina and her partner cannot go for them; Seiya is unconscious for quite a while, but he manages to buy time for himself and Saori.
- Seto No Hanayome has the young mermaid Sun saving an Ordinary High School Student Nagasumi's life, but upon doing so and letting him see a glimpse of her - she broke the code of secrecy between merpeople, and their existence will be revealed to humans. To keep the secret, either Sun or Nagasumi must die... but Sun demands Nagasumi to marry her instead so neither of them will be executed.
Comic Books
Film
Literature
- A significant part of the plot of the Greek mythology parody Ye Gods! by Tom Holt is that the classical hero Jason Derry finds Third Options wherever he looks, interfering with how the gods think his story is supposed to go. A lampshade is hung on this early on, when he is given the very symbolic choice between the Path of Virtue and the Path of Luxury, and a third road appears out of nowhere, marked "Diversion".
- William Horwood's novel Skallagrigg describes a computer game that begins with the player's daughter being born with severe disabilities (the game's creator has cerebral palsy). The player is asked whether to let the baby live or die, but both answers are dead ends. The hidden third option, which leads into the rest of the game, is "don't know".
- An older, famous literary example is in the play Nathan the Wise, taken from an even older story in The Decameron. The title character, a Jew, is asked by the Muslim ruler Saladin to determine whether Judaism, Christianity, or Islam is the "true religion". Given that because of anti-apostacy laws he would be executed for giving preference to any of the three, he instead uses the "parable of the rings" to give the non-answer that each religion thinks it's the true one but since no one can know until the day of judgment, people might as well be good to one another.
- The ending and one major theme of Catch-22. Yossarian is presented with two options by his commanding officers: promote what they are doing and go home a hero (but betray his friends), or face a court-martial. After first deciding to go home, he sees the immorality of it and decides to take a third option (deserting) and therefore beat the system.
- This is spoofed in the book by the name of the person who inspires him to attempt desertion. His friend was named Orr which sounds the same as the word "or". Literally he is the character who finds another alternative.
- A minor example occurs early in Enders Game. In a video game that invents itself as the player moves forward, Ender eventually runs up against a situation called the Giant's Drink: a giant offers Ender's character a choice between two odd-looking drinks. They're both poisoned; no matter which one Ender chooses, he always dies, albeit in a different way each time. Finally, frustrated by the game, Ender climbs up the giant's shirt and kills him by digging into his skull through his eye. It's not the most meaningful decision ever made—certainly not the most meaningful decision Ender makes—but the only reason Ender can continue in the game is because he thinks outside the box. Also, the game is a psych test in disguise, and getting fed up with the Giant and killing him rather than continuing to drink is an allegory for overcoming suicidal tendencies, so Ender is unknowingly passing a major test on the way to the end. (The Drink puzzle only comes up for people who've proven their suicidal tendencies through previous choices, and no one has ever gotten away from it before, leading the developers to freak when the game has to write entire new areas to accommodate how awesome Ender just proved himself to be.)
- The climax of the book is also a kind of Take A Third Option. Ender is facing his last and most difficult challenge at Command School, with only eighty outdated fighters up against a force of thousands and thousands based around a planet. He realizes that the teachers either want him to win fairly, in which case they'll just throw more and more challenges at him when he commands the real fleet, or lose, in which case he'll be sent home, and someone else will have to command the fleet and probably lose for real So instead, he decides to win unfairly, by using the Dr. Device against the planet, vaporizing the entire enemy fleet and most of his own fighters. Thus, he expects to win but be flunked out anyway for his insane solution. Except, of course, for the twist ending...
- Subverted in one of the later Shatnerverse novels when Kirk's, forced to chose between the life of his woman and aiding his current arch-nemesis, goes through an internal monologue explicitly trying to think of a third option and reflecting that there is always a third option. Then he realizes that this time, there isn't.
- ...Until he turns on his archnemesis, his Evil Twin from an evil parallel universe, anyway... But that doesn't happen until the next book.
- In Stephen Marley's Spirit Mirror, a dark fantasy story set in ancient China, the Big Bad, Nyak the GameMaster, is a Manipulative Bastard who plays a Xanatos Gambit on the heroine, Chia. Chia knows this and spends much of the book trying to Take A Third Option and avoid playing into Nyak's hands by doing what expects her to. She fails.
- In Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, at the end of the second volume the Hero faces a Friend or Idol Decision. She takes the "right" option, the one that wasn't used by the villain (and is the reason he became the villain). It is then revealed that her choice actually releases an evil god and the third book is all about taking a third option.
- Toward the end of Wizard's First Rule, the Big Bad Darken Rahl gives Richard a choice: Either help him open the Mac Guffin, allowing him to rule the world and take Kahlan as his queen, or do nothing, in which case Rahl will open one of the boxes and either rule the world anyway or destroy it. In the end, Richard feigns helping him (Rahl believed he was under a spell that would make him tell the truth), and tricks him into killing himself.
- One of the Halo novels uses this exact phrase while Captain Keyes is formulating tactics to win an impossible battle ("Yes... he did have a third option").
- He then proceeds to have a Crowning Moment Of Awesome involving ramming a Covenant destroyer to knock out its shields, whilst manouvering so it hits itself with its own plasma torpedoes.
- It has to be said the Keyes third option is more awesome than stated above, as he had his ship SLINGSHOT around a planet at one point, remote-activated a Shiva Nuke he'd dumped near the destroyer so its shields would be knocked out, and THEN trailed the plasma torpedoes into the enemy ship. The ramming was actually a calculated, risky move, that nearly tore Keyes' own ship in HALF. As said by the Schoolmaster himself 'half a degree off course, and the Iriquois would have been torn apart'. In the end, every single bottom deck on Keyes ship was breached, and two meters of solid titanium 'A' armor plating had been abraded right through. Crowning Moment Of Awesome indeed.
- Used in the games as well. The Flood have been released, and the apparent options are to either let them spread and consume everything in the galaxy, or activate the Halo, wiping out the Flood... along with any living thing large enough to support Flood infection. Cortana comes up with another plan; Chief destroys the Halo, eradicating the Flood and preventing galactic destruction.
- Used in Frederic Forsyth's novel The Devil's Alternative, where a Ukrainian terrorist is holding an oil tanker hostage and threatens to dump its contents onto the shores of the Netherlands unless his compatriots are released from a German prison. The allied powers know, however, that if the terrorists are released they will inform the media that they have assassinated the head of the KGB, news of which will cause the breakdown of the Russian political system and lead to a megalomaniac taking over the reigns of power and invading Western Europe. The goodies have the choice, allow massive environmental disruption or face the prospect of a Third World War. The hero comes up with the answer: allow the terrorists to be released for long enough that the oil tanker is released, but poison them with a slow acting poison that will kill them before they can release their news.
- The entire premise of the novel The Gripping Hand, which is the sequel to a book (The Mote in God's Eye) in which the human species makes contact with a species that has three hands—two dexterous hands and one strong "gripping" hand, the source of the title. This is exemplified in that the phrase "on the one hand...on the other hand..." is often followed by "on the gripping hand" even though humans can't naturally think that way (having only two hands and all).
- And yet, despite not having three hands, humans always look for the Third Option - to the point where the fatalistic Moties, condemned by their biology to two bad choices, consider us all insane for not understanding and accepting what is and must always be. Their term for humans is "Crazy Eddie", after a character in their folklore who's all about the (often absurd) Third Option.
- Anita Blake is notorious for doing this.
- Towards the end of Lords of the Bow, the Mongols are apparently faced with a choice of turning back or trying to break through the Great Wall of China and being slaughtered in the process by the Chin army waiting on the other side. Genghis Khan notices that the wall is contiguous with the mountains, and simply sends a portion of his army over the mountains to attack the Chin from behind.
- The Soul Drinkers in Warhammer 40000 essentially split this trope between two decisions, refusing to go along with the Imperium, then saying "Screw you" to Chaos. The third option? Hunted rebels.
- Ditto the Sons of Malice, another group of SpaceMarines that were insulted by an Inquisitor, so they ritualistically sacrificed her. So the Imperium hates them, but they hate Chaos, so they just go around picking whatever fights they want. It's important to note that the Sons of Malice had the same color scheme (and in some European releases of the book, the same name) as Malal, a chaos god of self-destructive tendencies.
- In the Star Trek Tales From the Captain's Table short story An Easy Fast, the protagonist, out for revenge against the three men who killed him (he got better), found each of them in different ways. The first man had already taken the third option of repentance over death and incarceration, so the protagonist let him be. The second man was still wanted, but had started up a lucrative business. The protagonist chose to have him give his employees a cut of the profits as a third option to either death or incarceration. The final man was condemned to die on another planet, and by fate the protagonist had the say-so to put him to death. The third option (from the first two of killing him or leaving him there to rot)? Give the condemned man his own say-so.
Live Action TV
- In the Star Trek The Next Generation episode "The Emissary," Capt. Picard is told that a sleeper ship of Klingons is about to wake up with standard orders to attack the Federation. Ambassador K'Ehleyr gives only two options: Let them attack with great loss of life, or kill them before they start. However, Picard orders her and Worf to come up with better options, and after considerable difficulty, they do come up with a better solution — Worf and K'Ehleyr dress up as a captain and his first officer and berate the rather surprised Klingons for not thinking first.
- In the Star Trek The Original Series episode ''Patterns of Force," Kirk and Spock are in a situation where a Nazi planet, created by a stupid Federation historian, is about to launch a genocidal invasion on a peaceful planet. One of their allies pleads with them to have the Enterprise to destroy the fleet as a lesser evil than letting the slaughter begin. Kirk balks at this bloody option, wanting to help the Nazi planet get back to normal, as well as protect its potential victims. In the end, Kirk makes the drugged Fuehrer cancel the invasion instead.
- Another Star Trek The Original Series episode, "Operation: Annihilate!" confronts Kirk with a choice between allowing body-snatching parasites to spread further or killing the existing victims (over a million people, including Spock and his own nephew). Kirk specifically tells Spock and McCoy, "I want that third alternative!" They find it, but it's a near thing.
- Another one was Kirk's The Kobayashi Maru. Option one was respond to rescue call and be destroyed, option two was to abandon the Kobayashi Maru, potentially preventing war but leaving the crew and passengers to die. Kirk decided to Take A Third Option and cheat.
- In the Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode "The Way of the Warrior", Sisko explicitly states they need a third option. The two available are to betray the Klingons and warn the Cardassians about an invasion, or do nothing, meaning things likely won't stop there. The option Sisko finds is to get measured for a new suit by the resident Cardassian tailor during a briefing.
- An episode of Malcolm In The Middle revolved around Hal agonising over whether or not to take a neighbour who was in a coma off life support. He eventually took a third option, but we never find out what it was.
- It made sense when he found out the man was a bird lover. And he got everything he needed at Radio Shack. Except for the hat.
- In an episode of MacGyver, Mac chases a group of gang members through an abandoned building and suddenly comes across an open door and a staircase, not knowing through where the gang went. He then uses his penknife to open a nearby locked door... only him to fall into a snare trap with a bomb (which turns out to be fake). It was all for the best though, as the gang's apparent military training coupled with the fact that they knew Mac would go through the locked door allows him to, with help, deduce the gang's ringleader's identity: (his police chief friend, who is also a former Marine).
- The sketch show Almost Live!, parodies this with the sketch "You Make the Call" (which was recycled for the show Haywire). Someone would have two choices, such as whether to run a red light and risk either a ticket or being late for work again. The third option was to just take a bazooka to the traffic light.
- Used directly or indirectly in several episodes of Stargate SG-1, such as "Urgo" (SG-1 can live with the annoying Urgo for the rest of their lives, or have him removed from their minds, effectively "killing" him) and "Zero Hour" (Turn Camulus over to Ba'al or SG-1 will be killed). Semi-lampshaded in the episode "Fail Safe", in which the presented third option is so outrageous that Col. O'Neill requests a fourth option.
- A better example would be "Moebius". SG-1's ship is discovered by the Jaffa in ancient Egypt. They can attempt to attack the Jaffa but then alter history, or they could just give up and spend their lives trapped in the past (with the added headache of having to live under Ra's rule). It's Daniel Jackson who comes up with a brilliant third option of burying the thing they came for so that they wouldn't have to go back in time to begin with. There's a reason he was the Smart Guy.
O'Neill: Or?
Carter: I can't think of an Or at the moment, sir.
O'Neill: Major; where there's a will there's an Or.
— Stargate SG-1, "1969"
- Averted in season 2 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Buffy finds herself facing a choice between killing Angel or allowing a demon to destroy the world. This is the sort of situation that just screams for Taking A Third Option... but Buffy doesn't.
- Well, the third option was preventing Angel from unsealing the demon in the first place; Buffy and Willow just didn't pull it off in time.
- Though the end of season 5 is a straight example - given the choice of her sister killing herself or destroying the world, Buffy chooses instead to kill herself, since it's "Summers blood" that will seal the world-eating rift. Of course, she gets better.
- In The Tenth Kingdom, a frog guards the exit to the dungeons, and warns the party that one way is the way out, and the other is a painful death. The heroes are given one question, with the caveat that the frog always lies. Tony frustrated with the tropes of Fairy Tale World, hurls the frog through one of the doors in a rage. When this kills the frog, they choose the safe exit.
- Averted in Only Fools And Horses. Market trader Derek Trotter is caught with a stolen microwave, and threatened with a charge of trafficking in stolen goods if he doesn't reveal the thief. If he won't talk, he and his family will suffer serious legal consequences. However, revealing the thief in exchange for immunity would make him a grass. When Derek agrees to the second option, his family is shocked... until, with full immunity in hand, he writes the name of the thief: 'Derek Trotter'
- In the conclusion of the main story arc of Babylon Five, Captain Sheridan is asked to choose between Vorlons and the Shadows. He tells both to "get the hell out of his galaxy" instead.
- When Delenn is facing flak from other Minbari for her choice to marry Sheridan on racial purity grounds, Delenn goes on a vision quest which eventually causes her to realize that she is descended from Valen (read: Commander Sinclair, a human turned Minbari). She threatened the guy involved that either they will accept her choice, or she will blab how many Minbari are not as pure as they thought they were, something that would throw Minbari society into chaos. Just before Delenn storms out, he offers a third option: invoking an old Minbari tradition hailing from the bad old days when they still killed each other: that someone from the each of the clans would marry each other after the fighting stopped, as a symbol to help rebuild.
- Paul McDermott of Good News Week, on the controversy over whether the New Millennium would start in 2000 or 2001:
"Thankfully, there's always the Australian solution: We start drinking on the 31st of December 1999, and we finish on the 1st of January 2001!"
- In the episode "Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk", Monk is given a choice: Hide in a Porta-John or a dumpster. His answer? "I choose death!"
Radio
- Adventures In Odyssey has an episode where Connie becomes the valedictorian. One of the things she has to do on stage however is say a prayer. So the principal of the college and her tutor let her write a prayer, only to find it makes references to Jesus which offends other members of the faculty. So the principal says she should pray the college's "acceptable" prayer. He adds that if she doesn't pray the "accpetable" prayer he'll stop her during her prayer and get her in more trouble. However, her tutor says if she wants to say her own prayer, she (and some other faculty members) will support her. On the day itself Connie makes the decision to...not pray at all!
Video Games
Webcomics
Web Original
Western Animation
- Done for humor in the Batman The Animated Series episode "Almost Got 'Im". Harley Quinn captures Catwoman and ties her to a conveyor belt heading for a massive meatgrinder. Batman arrives, and catches Harley, who then taunts that he can either bring her in, or rescue Catwoman, but not both. Batman then... nonchalantly reaches over to the circuit breaker and shuts off the power to the grinder, to which Harley responds, "Good call—Help!"
- Played with in Avatar: The Last Airbender, where the extremely aged and hunchbacked King Bumi gives Aang a choice between two equally fearsome looking opponents. Feeling clever, Aang promptly picks Bumi himself… who turns out be one of the most powerful Earthbenders in the world and promptly kicks Aang around the arena like a football. The whole point of this and the other exercises were trying to think outside-the-box, and Bumi made the third option so obvious by saying "choose your opponent" and standing right in front of him that taking the third wasn't really that creative.
- This trope crops up again in the series finale, where Aang is forced to decide whether to let Ozai live and carry out his genocide on the Earth Kingdom, or kill him outright. Aang manages to get around this by learning how to Spiritbend by getting Touched By Vorlons and permanently disabling Ozai's ability fo firebend.
- Nearly subverted, certainly lampshaded in The Batman, where D.A.V.E., a robot programmed as "Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind", forces Batman to choose between Alfred's life and his secret identity. Batman tries to free Alfred through different means, only for D.A.V.E. to slam him against the wall of the Batcave, shouting that he knew he would try to take a third, more favorable option.
- In one episode of South Park, Towelie was faced with either preventing the boys and their new game system from falling into a death trap, or getting high from a joint the evil towel was taunting him with. Towelie's response? "I choose.... BOTH!"
- In one episode of Family Guy, Peter and his father-in-law sell Meg some marijuana, creating an implicit choice between the money and the pot, so Mr. Pewterschmidt hits Meg over the head and declares "now we have the money and the pot."
- In the XMen Animated Series, Bishop goes back in time to stop Apocalypse from causing a global plague. But in Cable's time (further into the future), Cable realizes that if Bishop saves the present, it would doom his future. The plague would allow humanity to develop antibodies that would help the people in Cable's time survive further plagues. So basically, if Cable wants to save his people, he has to help Apocalypse win. His third option? Expose Wolverine to the virus so his healing powers would create antibodies to counter the virus, thus giving it a cure. This allows Cable to save the future and the present.
- Utilized (rather unfairly from a viewer's POV) in the short-lived Dragon's Lair cartoon. The show would often go into commercial breaks with Dirk facing an A or B choice. In the original video game, one would mean safe passage the other, instant, hideous death. In the cartoon, both meant death. But, as the narration would smugly inform us, "Dirk saw there was a better way".
- Used in the Powerpuff Girls episode "Three Girls and a Monster", when Blossom and Buttercup are having an argument over how best to beat the Monster Of The Week, with Bubbles stuck in the middle. Well-calculated attacks don't seem to touch it, and trying to beat the crap out of it doesn't work - it doesn't even seem to leave a scratch - so what does Bubbles finally do to beat it? Politely ask it to leave. And it WORKS.
- The first Futurama movie has the scammer aliens give the heroes and their fleet of ships the option to either surrender unconditionally, or be destroyed. So Bender shoots a doomsday device at them.
Nudar: You have two choices: unconditional surrender...
Leela: Never!
Nudar: Or total annihilation.
Leela: Also never!
Nudar: You have thirty seconds to decide.
Leela: NEVER!!!!
- In the Space Ghost episode, "Zorak," Zorak kidnaps Space Ghost's teen sidekicks and forces him to fight his giant hornets without his power bands, or his sidekicks will die. After fighting the wasps for a few minutes, Space Ghost puts his power bands back on and defeats the hornets, saving his sidekicks shortly after. The third option, if you missed it, was "remember that all your enemies are idiots," or "both" for short.
Real Life
- In the 1920s, a British submarine captain in China once faced the Hobson's Choice of either allowing a hijacked river steamer to escape, or allowing the pirates to kill their hostages. He took the third option of sinking the ship. He fired a shot into the waterline, causing the ship to settle slowly, so that the passengers and crew could easily abandon ship, and in the confusion most of the pirates were killed. Since they had blended with the passengers, it was uncertain how many pirates had escaped and how many innocents had died, but the overall solution worked, and the captain was exonerated.
- Something similar happened in the English debates leading up to the Canadian parliamentary election in 2006. While future Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper tore then-PM Paul Martin's corrupt Liberal government to shreds, the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), Jack Layton, took most of his time to remind Canadians that they "always have a third option," and to vote NDP. It backfired spectacularly, making Layton look like a kid in the back of a classroom, jumping up and down and yelling "pick me!" The media backlash was so large, and the third-option catchphrase repeated so often to tarnish Layton's reputation, that it's the closest thing to Memetic Mutation in the political journalism field.
- Of course, the way many Canadians look at Harper now, I bet they wish they'd taken that third option...
- In Eagleland it's Ralph Nader...just, Ralph Nader.
- Siddhārtha Gautama took a third option about 2500 years ago — giving up a life of luxury as a prince and rejecting a life of religious Asceticism to try out what he called the Middle Way
 , which he would later, as Gautama Buddha, expand into Buddhism.
- Though very few people know it is prominent in the religious text, being somewhat more familiar with the Viewers Are Morons version, The Bible has this as an explicit choice; in a metaphor for different ways of going through life, the correct path in life is the middle path, not the right or the left path.
- The Operation at Entebbe Airport in 1976. Do you capitulate to the demands of terrorists? Or do you allow them to kill dozens of passengers? You do neither, instead you stack a Hercules cargo plane with the baddest Israeli Special Forces in the country and send them to rescue the hostages in what is still today one of the most daring, most successful, most iconic hostage rescues in history. Generally considered the nation of Israel's third biggest Crowning Moment Of Awesome (behind winning their independence and their victory in the Six Day War).
- In the days right before the Roman Civil War, Pompey and the Senate attempted to foist two lose-lose options onto Julius Caesar: return to Rome without his veteran legions in Gaul and be crucified in court, or be declared an enemy of the state. In a case of Refuge In Audacity, Caesar decided to Take A Third Option and marched one legion into Italy proper. Caesar held the initiative for a good part of the war after that.
- Tony Blair (Prime Minister of Britain from 1997 - 2007)and the Clintons are three Politicians who decided to take a third option; 'The Third Way.' Basically mixing right-wing and left-wing ideology.
- Only it was just the old ways repackaged and ineffectively applied with fists of ham based on the Ferengi Rules Of Acquisition.
- No Berlin Airlift? After the Soviets blockaded the western-controlled West Berlin, an enclave in East Germany, the only apparent options for supplying the city were to try and force their way past the Soviet blockade, thus giving the USSR grounds to retaliate and potentially start WW 3, or to allow the city to be starved into submission. The chosen solution? Fly in the supplies required by the city's two million plus population. The largest airlift in history followed and it placed the shoe completely on the other foot; the airlift could only be stopped if the Soviets started downing planes.
- This seems to be common in American history. Remember Fort Sumter? The Union could either send a ship to resupply it, and give the Confederacy an excuse saying they were being attacked to start a war while blaming the Union, or let them all starve. The choice? Warn everyone faaaar in advance that a ship would be sent without weapons solely to resupply the fort, giving the 'blame' for starting the war to the South.
- Sir Alan Turing. It's a tragic tale, after advancing computer science immeasurably, being a key player in the British attempts to break German Ciphers, and even being knighted, he was charged with Homosexuality, which was still unfortunately illegal at the time, and given a choice between Jail-time or chemical castration. In 1954 he injected an apple with cyanide and took his own life, and one of the greatest minds of the 20th century was lost.
- Okay, worth pointing out it is theorised he injected the apple. It wasn't tested for Cyanide, his mother thinks he got careless and accidentally exposed himself, and some even have suggested he was assassinated. Either way, it's still a tragedy.
- In a way, Libertarianism is an entire Political movement taking the third option. They agree with the Republicans on some issues and they agree with the Democrats on others.
- This can be expanded to any third parties in two-party systems. The NDP in Canada, the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom, the minority parties in Germany, etc.
- Fascism and various nationalistic movements are commonly considered "The Third Option" (in some languages also named "tercerist ragimes") as they merge stances typical for right-wing (natinalism, conservatism) and left-wing (interventionism, syndicalism) parties.
- Also in a way, the Non Alligned Movement can be seen as this too. Countries like India, Egypt, Tito's Yugoslavia, Indonesia and others chose to join neither the URSS nor USA in the Cold War, making their own alliance instead.
- This is exactly what the Third World countries originally meant.
Myth & Legend
- When Kuchisake-onna asks you if you think she's pretty, especially after she reveals her Glasgow Grin, honesty is just plain suicidal. Telling her she DOES look pretty isn't a good idea either. However, you can tell she looks so-so, or give her candy, or throw candy in another direction, or ask her if she thinks you're pretty. Most of these will just confuse her. Also she LOVES candy.
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