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Anime and Manga
"My plan was perfect but there was one thing I overlooked, one factor I failed to calculate. He's a dumbass and there's no accounting for dumbass-ness."
— Agito Wanijima, Air Gear
"Nothing is going our way! How could one intruder spark so much mayhem!?"
— Warden Magellan, One Piece
Subject F!! An extreme threat to Hayasaka... She could not be predicted. Her thoughts could not be read. A Natural Disaster who unconsciously threw everything into chaos simply by being present! She was Hayasaka's natural enemy, and had already been the cause of countless missions being failed!
Comic Books
"There's one factor Kosmos didn't figure into his little equation when he sent the force of his spirit to meet me here and plotted to rule the Earth! And that factor was— THIS!"
"Naturally, I didn't tell him how I escaped— He has years behind bars to wonder about that! Even if I told him the truth...He'd probably never believe his scheme was done in by a class of sixth graders...who gained a victory with the help of microcomputers!"
Fan Works
You are the NARRATIVE. You were simply plodding on in your inimitable, Hussian fashion, waiting to get to the more interesting 5X SHOWDOWN COMBO on the ROOFTOP, which promises to be a 6X SHOWDOWN COMBO, thanks to the UNBISECTION of ERIDAN AMPORA, when suddenly, you were thrown COMPLETELY OFF-TRACK by the addition of ONE (1) EXTREMELY ENRAGED RAINBOW DRINKER, who has jumped into the middle of this very heartwrenching and pathos-ridden scene, taken TEREZI'S DRAGON CANE right out of Terezi's hands, and BOPPED Vriska Serket over the head with it.
That was unexpected. You are DERAILED, in a superbly metatextual example of anthropomorphization.
That was unexpected. You are DERAILED, in a superbly metatextual example of anthropomorphization.
Fuyutsuki:"But you said that this project was 100% planned, right?"
Gendo:"There was only one mistake on my part. I won't let that happen again."
Fuyutsuki:"You mean...your son?"
Gendo:"Yes. I didn't think that the Second Child would use the Third to 'satisfy' her boosted hormones...this was a big mistake, and may result in complications."
Gendo:"There was only one mistake on my part. I won't let that happen again."
Fuyutsuki:"You mean...your son?"
Gendo:"Yes. I didn't think that the Second Child would use the Third to 'satisfy' her boosted hormones...this was a big mistake, and may result in complications."
"But mostly? The assorted plans at play here would be going very, very wrong due to the actions of a no-name, no-count, utterly talentless Magus by the name of Shirou Emiya. He had no magic worth mentioning, no combat experience of note, and no plan for or knowledge of the War he was about to enter. He did, however, have one trait that had derailed a countless number of such grand, far-reaching schemes throughout history.
You see, he really, really wanted to be a hero."
You see, he really, really wanted to be a hero."
— Narrator, Chaos Theory
Luthor's enforcers had learned to respect superheroes and never take a foe for granted. Chances are, the old guy facing them was tough, a brawler, but they could handle that. They were also three or four to one, depending on how you counted the Siamese twins, Pluto and Plato Statler.
The problem was, nobody had ever briefed them on Captain Strong.
The problem was, nobody had ever briefed them on Captain Strong.
Damnable adolescent yearlings, every one of them, like the beardless youths Hitler put against the Allies when all his other defenses were cracking. Except these yearlings had power. None of them equal to mine, individually. But they knew how to effectively combine what they had. And they had luck, three times damned three times luck, and NO ONE HAD EVER SEEN THEM BEFORE.
All mutants.
Three males, one female, and one snow-being whose sex is impossible to determine at this point.
An unknown quantity.
An x-factor.
A XAVIER FACTOR.
All mutants.
Three males, one female, and one snow-being whose sex is impossible to determine at this point.
An unknown quantity.
An x-factor.
A XAVIER FACTOR.
— Magneto, Devil's Diary
The plan had been so straightforward as to almost be laughable. Sabotage the plane's engine, making it crash, then blaming it on the new navigation system. Sure, any engineer worth his salt would say that a faulty navigation system would not make an engine explode, but with the plane splattered across half of Metropolis and a few hundred people dead in the crash, no one would have listened. The company would have never recovered from this public relations disaster.
But the plan had not worked. All because some comic book superheroine had chosen that exact moment to step into the limelight. Was this a joke? Was some cosmic deity playing a prank? The world gains a superhero just in time to sabotage his plans?
But the plan had not worked. All because some comic book superheroine had chosen that exact moment to step into the limelight. Was this a joke? Was some cosmic deity playing a prank? The world gains a superhero just in time to sabotage his plans?
"The first investigation was going exactly as the Mastermind hoped it would. And then Ouma picked up the ball."
"Even after I had to step in, it was going perfectly. Akamatsu-san was all set to take the fall for me, but then... You...! You ruined everything with one fucking joke!"
"We had everything so well planned. We were so clever. Secret messages. Bread codes. And we got tripped up by a malfunctioning shield and a worker on a coffee break."
— Finnick Odair, The Golden Mean
Film — Animation
"Two and a half years of undercover work were almost wasted when you intercepted that child, Mr. Sullivan. Of course, without your help, I never would have known that this went all the way up to Waternoose."
— Roz, Monsters, Inc.
Film — Live-Action
"Eight years, not a word from the feds, nothing from those Halloween costumed ram-bozos up there on Stark Tower. And then all of a sudden... this little bastard in red tights shows up, and he thinks he can tear down everything I built... really? I'm gonna kill him."
— Adrian Toomes / Vulture, Spider-Man: Homecoming
Karl: I want blood!
Hans: You'll have it. But let Heinrich plant the detonators, and Theo prepare the vault. After we call the police, they'll waste hours trying to negotiate, and then you can tear the building apart looking for this man. But until then, we do not alter the plan.
Karl: ...And if HE alters it?
Hans: You'll have it. But let Heinrich plant the detonators, and Theo prepare the vault. After we call the police, they'll waste hours trying to negotiate, and then you can tear the building apart looking for this man. But until then, we do not alter the plan.
Karl: ...And if HE alters it?
— Die Hard
Hans Gruber: Who are you then?
John McClane: Just a fly in the ointment, Hans. The monkey in the wrench. The pain in the ass.
John McClane: Just a fly in the ointment, Hans. The monkey in the wrench. The pain in the ass.
— Die Hard
"I just did what I do best. I took your little plan and I turned it on itself."
— The Joker, The Dark Knight
"How the hell did we miss you?"
— Rose the Hat upon discovering Danny Torrance's existence, Doctor Sleep
Literature
"Reality and human nature, sir, are very important things, and oh how they sometimes bring down the most perspicacious calculations!"
— Porfiry Petrovich, Crime and Punishment
"Aboyne (vb.)
To beat an expert at a game of skill by playing so appallingly that none of his clever tactics or strategies are of any use to him."
To beat an expert at a game of skill by playing so appallingly that none of his clever tactics or strategies are of any use to him."
"The best swordsman in the world doesn't need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn't know the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn't prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do, and often it catches the expert out and ends him on the spot."
— Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
"The two crimes were committed against the same weakness of the same person, in a struggle for her money. The author of the larger crime found himself thwarted by the smaller crime; the author of the smaller crime got the money."
— Father Brown, The Eye of Apollo
"Without any effort on our part, and without any great desire on my part, we somehow managed to encounter all manner of worshippers of the Dark Ones. I myself have often suspected that we were somehow doomed to oppose their schemes without ever really understanding why... Certainly, we often stumbled across the most outrageous and wicked schemes perpetrated by the most unlikely of evildoers..."
— Felix Jaeger, Gotrek & Felix
Live-Action TV
"But that's why you're so dangerous. Knowledge is power, yet you remain unknown."
— The Editor to the Doctor, Doctor Who ("The Long Game")
"There's one thing you never put in a trap if you're smart. If you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow there's one thing you never ever put in a trap: Me."
— The Eleventh Doctor, Doctor Who, "The Time of Angels"
"I'm here to screw up your plan."
— Hidari Shotaro in the Big Bad's lair, Kamen Rider Double
Littlefinger: None of you were there to see what happened. None of you knows the truth.
Bran: You held a knife to his throat.
[Littlefinger looks round speechless with an expression that screams "Oh, Crap!"]
Bran: You said, "I did warn you not to trust me."
Bran: You held a knife to his throat.
[Littlefinger looks round speechless with an expression that screams "Oh, Crap!"]
Bran: You said, "I did warn you not to trust me."
"I demand trial by combat."
— Tyrion Lannister more than once, Game of Thrones
"200 years of planning, ruined in an instant. Now you will feel my wrath. The great deceiver has been deceived!"
— Serrator's reaction to Deker's betrayal against him, Power Rangers Samurai
Video Games
"What happens to your prophecy if I shoot you first?"
— Dan Smith, Killer7
"That... That vulgar, low-class Servant! I must understand, I must calculate the... No, it's impossible...! I CANNOT comprehend this! How in the world did this happen?! They invalidate my calculations... All should be within the realm of my understanding, the margin of error! That thing... Under what principles does it operate?! No equation could predict the actions of that thing! Can this... be?! No, it can't... it caaaAAARRRGGGHHH! As crude as that creature is, she is a Servant chosen by the Umbral Star! We share the same level of power, and yet...! She does this! That fool would lay waste to my plans?!"
— Archimedes, Fate/Extella
"That little goon! Even a chimp knows better than to pick the losing side! This ruins my plan to wrap the Game up on Day 1! I'll need to work up another strategy... adjust for the longer term. Good thing I never make mistakes..."
— Mitsuki Konishi, The World Ends with You, after learning that Beat made a pact with Neku
"While I was trying to bring back Sora, I had so many plans in store, but once Sora was an acting force, they fell apart. All my research amounted to nothing, compared with that one boy's heart."
— Diz/Ansem The Wise, Kingdom Hearts II
"The Right Man in the Wrong Place can make all the difference... in the world."
— The G-Man, Half-Life 2
"You know, when you said 'Noel Vermillion' a few moments ago, I damn near peed myself. All of my plans - POOF! instantly undone. All thanks to you."
— Hazama, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift : Slight Hope, to Makoto Nanaya on why he has to kill her now
"Awww, did I throw a 'Wrench' into your plans!? Hahahaha!"
— The Spy, Team Fortress 2, upon killing the same engineer multiple times
Xigbar: You're not supposed to be here!
Lea: Promises to keep. I'll always be there to get my friends back. What, bad timing? You had your perfect little script, but you kinda forgot to write the sequel. Now, let's find out what happens!
Lea: Promises to keep. I'll always be there to get my friends back. What, bad timing? You had your perfect little script, but you kinda forgot to write the sequel. Now, let's find out what happens!
"How many times do I have to tell you idiots?! If you're the last one in, LOCK THE FRONT GATE!!"
— Bowser, after the Mario Bros. have just entered his castle through said unlocked door, Super Paper Mario
"Calculating an optimum course of action is simple. If two AI weapons are pitted against each other, the one with superior hardware will always win. Human misjudgements defy predictive models."
— EDI, Mass Effect 2
"You... You dare... Plan ruined. Important plan. Needed labor. Opened vortex. Found workforce. Brought here. And yet? Error made. Irksome, pink contaminant... Careful planning. Now wasted."
— Fecto Forgo, Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Edgeworth: This might be our chance.
Phoenix: Our chance?
Edgeworth: von Karma has only ever run perfect trials.
Phoenix: Perfect trials...?
Edgeworth: Perfectly prepared witnesses, perfectly complete evidence. That's the secret to his success. This is the first time he's ever had to deal with something unexpected! He has let someone he hasn't even talked to testify before the court! And that someone... is Larry!
Phoenix: Our chance?
Edgeworth: von Karma has only ever run perfect trials.
Phoenix: Perfect trials...?
Edgeworth: Perfectly prepared witnesses, perfectly complete evidence. That's the secret to his success. This is the first time he's ever had to deal with something unexpected! He has let someone he hasn't even talked to testify before the court! And that someone... is Larry!
Webcomics
"Congratulations. You've just invented negligent regicide."
— Ennesby, Schlock Mercenary, "2009-11-02
"
"To be fair, it was a great plan until it involved Fighter.
— Thief, 8-Bit Theater, "Almost the Right Idea"
"You always overthink things. The reason your plans keep failing is not because your enemies are geniuses. It's because they are idiots. A plan is only truly foolproof if you consider The Fool. Oh, and checkmate."
— Wizard, Antihero for Hire
"And thus he falls for Villain Fallacy #2: letting the harmless comic relief run free."
— Professor Madblood, Narbonic
Charlie's Rule #1: Always have the best plan in the game.
Corollary: If they have a better plan than you do, then our plan is to disrupt their plan.
Lilith's Corollary: Because of Rule #1, the plan against Charlie is always to disrupt his plan.
Corollary: If they have a better plan than you do, then our plan is to disrupt their plan.
Lilith's Corollary: Because of Rule #1, the plan against Charlie is always to disrupt his plan.
— Erfworld
"Listen. I get it. You're using a light touch, because the more you change, the less things match your predictions. But it's not going to work. It's obvious someone is working against you, and they don't have to follow the rules."
— The Princess to Zar the Psion, Rusty and Co., 12-32
Web Original
"lea is a professional shit-fucker-upper. get in his way? he'll fuck your shit up. be his close friend? he'll fuck your shit up (through incompetence). just be in the wrong place at the wrong time? he'll almost certainly fuck your shit up too. hell he even fucked his own shit up so bad he set himself on fire
whoever you are.....whatever your agenda is.....lea will wander into your life, fuck all your shit up, and then wander back out of your life to go find ice cream"
whoever you are.....whatever your agenda is.....lea will wander into your life, fuck all your shit up, and then wander back out of your life to go find ice cream"
Web Video
"Hey, I totally just gummed up your subplot. Now let me gloat about it in front of you so you can easily fix it."
— The Nostalgia Chick, on Coki's "plan" in The Baby-Sitters Club
[After the Namekians, Bulma and Gohan return to Earth]
Dende: [via thoughts/telepathy] Ah, it's good to be the king...
King Kai: Hello? Who am I speaking to right now?
Dende: My name is Dende...
King Kai: Dende? Are you the one who made the wish on the Dragon?
Dende: I am.
King Kai: How the hell did you know my plan?
Dende: What plan? I just wanted to screw over Freeza.
Dende: [via thoughts/telepathy] Ah, it's good to be the king...
King Kai: Hello? Who am I speaking to right now?
Dende: My name is Dende...
King Kai: Dende? Are you the one who made the wish on the Dragon?
Dende: I am.
King Kai: How the hell did you know my plan?
Dende: What plan? I just wanted to screw over Freeza.
In [the] manga, Fujiwara is the element of chaos. Not "a", not "one of", but "the" element of chaos.
"You ruined everything @William_Beaver! We have been planning for so long!"
— Veeva Dash on Twitter, Stampy's Lovely World
"You know what's not a controversial opinion? Crocodile did everything right. Like, not morally, of course. Morally, the actions he took in Alabasta were pretty reprehensible. But I'm just saying, like if you were going to be a villain, you would want to be Crocodile. I mean, he had backup plans, he had contingency plans for his backup plans. He really thought of everything. ...Except for a lunatic and his band of misfits going into a country that they had nothing to do with and just ruining everything."
Western Animation
"Rufus, this is a precision instrument, incredibly complex. Better mess with everything."
— Ron Stoppable, Kim Possible
Natasha: Boris, I thought you said this plan was foolproof.
Boris: Foolproof yes, idiotproof, no.
Boris: Foolproof yes, idiotproof, no.
