History Main / TakeAThirdOption

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** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': [[spoiler: Sakura Ogami]] took one. [[spoiler: It's eventually revealed at the end of case 4's trial that the reason Monokuma was able to persuade Sakura to be TheMole was because Monokuma was holding the Ogami dojo hostage. Sakura either had to kill someone and thus lose her moral integrity, which would emotionally destroy her (and cause her to be ''bloodily executed'' if she can't get away with it), or lose her family's beloved dojo, which is the other important thing in her life... And what does she do? [[HeroicSuicide She kills herself]], which simultaneously satisfies the dojo-saving requirement of killing someone (''her own person'') while preserving Sakura's moral integrity by not actually killing any of the others.]]
** ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': Option A: [[spoiler:everyone leaves the islands... including the Mastermind. And no, its escape cannot be impeded if this option is chosen]]. Option B: [[spoiler: stay on the islands as prisoners to keep the Mastermind trapped]]. Then some help comes and offers option C, which takes the best of A and B as [[spoiler:the Mastermind dies and everyone else escapes... but most of them will recover their erased memories. Which aren't pleasant]].

* * ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' #200 had a debate over who was ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''' [[UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny greatest wizard]]: [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Elminster]] (argued for by Creator/EdGreenwood) or [[Literature/{{Dragonlance}} Raistlin]] (argued for by Creator/TracyHickman). At the end of the article, it was revealed that [[LetsYouAndHimFight the fight was being set up by]] [[TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}} Mordenkainen]].

* A comic from ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' has people discussing a glass that has water in half of it. One says, "The glass is half full!" One says, "The glass is half empty!" One says, "Half full... no, wait, half empty... no, wait..." And the last guy is shouting, "Hey! I ordered a cheeseburger!"
* One ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' strip had Paige asking Peter whether a glass of soda in front of her is half-full or half-empty. Peter simply takes the glass, drinks it, and says "empty."

* ''Literature/AGiantSuckingSound'': The premise of the story is Ross Perot winning the 1992 election. Unfortunately, he has trouble getting much of his agenda threw Congress, so he forms the populist Freedom Party, made mostly of moderate Republicans, conservative Democrats, mavericks, political fringes, and forever dismantles the two party system.

* Taking one of these forms the crux of the [[spoiler: True]] Ending of ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate''. Okabe is faced with two equally awful timelines: the Alpha timeline, where [[spoiler: Mayuri dies and SERN completes their time machine and turns the world into a dystopia]], or the Beta timeline, where [[spoiler: Kurisu is stabbed to death and her father plagiarizes her paper on time travel, sparking World War III]]. Obviously, Okabe doesn't want either of these timelines to come to past. However, none other than [[spoiler: his future self, driven by his failure to change the Beta timeline,]] provides the third option: [[spoiler: the [[TitleDrop Steins;Gate]] timeline, where Okabe TrickedOutTime to save Kurisu and the time travel paper burns in a plane fire]].

-->-- '''David Carradine'''

->''"There's always a third way, and it's not [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs a combination of the other two ways]]. It's a '''different''' way."''

Compare

* ''TabletopGame,{{Fate}}'' puts this in the game's mechanics in the ''Fate Horror Tookit.'' The GM has the option of giving the players a "Climactic Dilemma" where they have to choose between two unpalatable options to resolve the horror. If the group attempts a third option to avoid both bad choices, the difficulty is automatically raised by three to four points and failure brings much greater consequences than normal.

** Invoked again when Critic and Hyper Fangirl have a tie in their Old Vs. New debate on Disney's classic animated ''Disney/{{Cinderella}}'' vs. [[Film/Cinderella2015 the 2015 live-action remake]]. When they ask Devil Boner and Benny the Assassin to break the tie as to which ''Cinderella'' movie is best, they both give the same answer: ''Film/EverAfter''.

* ''DokiDokiLiteratureClub'' has Yuri and Natsuki arguing over who's writing style is better, eventually asking the protagonist to settle the issue. The player can choose to side with one girl or the other, or they can ask Sayori for help. [[spoiler:This is the only time in the entire game that this trope is able to be played straight.]]

->''"There's always a third way, and it's not a combination of the other two ways. It's a '''different''' way."''

** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': [[spoiler: Sakura Ogami]] took one. [[spoiler: It's eventually revealed at the end of case 4's trial that the reason Monokuma was able to persuade Sakura to be TheMole was because Monobear was holding the Ogami dojo hostage. Sakura either had to kill someone and thus lose her moral integrity, which would emotionally destroy her (and cause her to be ''bloodily executed'' if she can't get away with it), or lose her family's beloved dojo, which is the other important thing in her life... And what does she do? [[HeroicSuicide She kills herself]], which simultaneously satisfies the dojo-saving requirement of killing someone (''her own person'') while preserving Sakura's moral integrity by not actually killing any of the others.]]

Compare ThirdOptionAdaptation, where an interactive work is adapted to another medium and the producers decide to Take a Third Option in order to avoid endorsing one of the original options over others.

Compare and contrast MakingTheChoiceForYou where someone is unable to decide and someone or something else decides for you, [[MetaphoricallyTrue which is a different type of third option]].

Compare LoopholeAbuse and StealTheSurroundings, which can be used to utilize this trope. ThirdOptionLoveInterest is when this trope applies to romance. Contrast SadisticChoice, where there is no such option.

* Averted in ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' when [[http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1996-06-02/ he is visited by Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light.]] Phil offers him two options as punishment for his sins, one where he will have a meaningless job, but will be paid highly, and one where he will have an important job, but be paid badly. You do not see which he chooses, but Dilbert is delighted, because both are better than his current position (where he is paid badly for meaningless work).

** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': [[spoiler: Sakura Oogami]] took one. [[spoiler: It's eventually revealed at the end of case 4's trial that the reason Monobear was able to persuade Sakura to be TheMole was because Monobear was holding the Oogami dojo hostage. Sakura either had to kill someone and thus lose her moral integrity, which would emotionally destroy her (and cause her to be ''bloodily executed'' if she can't get away with it), or lose her family's beloved dojo, which is the other important thing in her life... And what does she do? [[HeroicSuicide She kills herself]], which simultaneously satisfies the dojo-saving requirement of killing someone (''her own person'') while preserving Sakura's moral integrity by not actually killing any of the others.]]
** ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': Option A: [[spoiler:everyone leaves the islands... including the Mastermind. And no, its escape cannot be impeded if this option is choosed]]. Option B: [[spoiler: stay on the islands as prisoners to keep the Mastermind trapped]]. Then some help comes and offers option C, which takes the best of A and B as [[spoiler:the Mastermind dies and everyone else escapes... but most of them will recover their erased memories. Which aren't pleasant]].

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[[folder: Professional Wrestling]]

* In ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance'''s climax, there are two options presented, both disastrous-- [[spoiler: Davenport's plan to run from the Hunger and leave the world and their most of their friends to die, or Lucretia's plan to put up a barrier to cut off the world from all other planes, and, thus, the Hunger, which would almost definitely doom it as well. They take a third option, to lure the Hunger to a separate plane and cut that one off, trapping it there forever. This, happily, saves the world, as well as reality as a whole.]]

* In ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance'''s climax, there are two options presented, both disastrous-- [[spoiler:run from the Hunger and leave the world and their most of their friends to die, or put up a barrier to cut off the world from all other planes, and, thus, the Hunger, which would almost definitely doom it as well. They take a third option, to lure the Hunger to a separate plane and cut that one off, trapping it there forever. This, happily, saves the world, as well as reality as a whole.]]

Compare LoopholeAbuse and StealTheSurroundings, which can be used to utilize this trope. ThirdOptionLoveInterest is when this trope applies to romance.

Sometimes a hero faces an agonizing decision where [[MortonsFork the apparent two choices are terrible]], such as a FriendOrIdolDecision or a SadisticChoice. Typically, the hero chooses the lesser of two evils.

Compare LoopholeAbuse and StealTheSurroundings, which can be used to utilize this trope. ThirdOptionLoveInterest is when this trope applies to romance. Averted when presented with a SadisticChoice.