History Main / TakeAThirdOption

''Castlevania: Priest Battle'': Simon Belmont confronts a priest who originally healed him. Simon demands to be healed, again, but the priest refuses the demand. After some threats and insults, Jesus suddenly appears in the church. He transports all of them to the woods. Simon and the priest engage in battle. Simon is victorious and asks Jesus to grant him a wish. Annoyed, Jesus rebukes Simon, who feels insulted. He is transferred to platforms above water. Jesus reappears and tells Simon to ask for forgiveness or else be murdered. Simon suggests a third option: he defeats Jesus in a battle. [[spoiler:Simon defeats Jesus who is then confronted by none other than God. Annoyed, God zaps Jesus into dust. He offers a mysterious bag to Simon before leaving to kill kids who are starving. Opening the bag, Simon is greeted by a Pikachu. He whips it into the distance and is left thinking that God apparently has a sick sense of humor.]]

** After Saber [[spoiler:nearly wipes her magical energy empty with the Excalibur]], Shirou is initially faced with two options as to how to restore her energy: 1. transfer his energy to her, which is out of the question due to his poor magic skill. 2. Have her [[MoralEventHorizon kill humans and steal their energy]], which he doesn't want to do for obvious reasons. [[spoiler:Later, however, Rin reveals that there is a third option: ''[[IntimateHealing have sex with Saber]]''. Too weak as a magus to transfer magic, and too moral to slaughter the lives of innocents, Shirou [[CantActPervertedTowardALoveInterest hesitatingly]] [[ExplicitContent takes option three]].]]

''Castlevania: Priest Battle'': Simon Belmont confronts a priest who originally healed him. Simon demands to be healed, again, but the priest refuses the demand. After some threats and insults, Jesus suddenly appears in the church. He transports all of them to the woods. Simon and the priest engage in battle. Simon is victorious and asks Jesus to grant him a wish. Annoyed, Jesus rebukes Simon, who feels insulted. He is transferred to platforms above water. Jesus reappears and tells Simon to ask for forgiveness or else be murdered. Simon suggests a third option: he defeats Jesus in a battle. [[spoiler:Simon defeats Jesus who is then confronted by none other than God. Annoyed, God zaps Jesus into dust. He offers a mysterious bag as a reward to Simon before leaving to kill kids who are starving. Opening the bag, Simon is greeted by a Pikachu. He whips it into the distance and is left thinking that God apparently has a sick sense of humor.]]

''Castlevania: Priest Battle'': Simon Belmont confronts a priest who originally healed him. Simon demands to be healed, again, but the priest refuses the demand. After some threats and insults, Jesus suddenly appears in the church. He transports all of them to the woods. Simon and the priest engage in battle. Simon is victorious and asks Jesus to grant him a wish. Annoyed, Jesus rebukes Simon, who feels insulted. He is transferred to platforms above water. Jesus reappears and tells Simon to ask for forgiveness or else be murdered. Simon suggests a third option: he defeats Jesus in a battle. [[Spoiler:Simon defeats Jesus who is then confronted by none other than God. Annoyed, God zaps Jesus into dust. He offers a mysterious bag as a reward to Simon before leaving to kill kids who are starving. Opening the bag, Simon is greeted by a Pikachu. He whips into the distance and is left thinking that God apparently has a sick sense of humor.]]

[[folder:Flash Games]]
''Castlevania: Priest Battle'': Simon Belmont confronts a priest who originally healed him. Simon demands to be healed, again, but the priest refuses the demand. After some threats and insults, Jesus suddenly appears in the church. He transports all of them to the woods. Simon and the priest engage in battle. Simon is victorious and asks Jesus to grant him a wish. Annoyed, Jesus rebukes Simon, who feels insulted. He is transferred to platforms above water. Jesus reappears and tells Simon to ask for forgiveness or else be murdered. Simon suggests a third option: he defeats Jesus in a battle. [[Spoiler:Simon defeats Jesus who is then confronted by none other than God. Annoyed, God zaps Jesus into dust. He offers a mysterious bag as a reward to Simon before leaving to kill kids who are starving. Opening the bag, Simon is greeted by a Pikachu. He whips into the distance and is left thinking that God apparently has a sick sense of humor.]]

[[folder:Flash Games]]

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, EverybodyLives, and the day is saved completely.

* In ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert'', [[spoiler:When Heidi tells the protagonist that he has to choose between Kathy and herself, he can say he’s choosing someone completely different instead.]]

* On the Livejournal community ''Anthropomorphs Deserve Love Too!'', [[http://community.livejournal.com/anthropomor_fic/50366.html#cutid1 Alienware does this to the Linux system.]]

* In ''WebVideo/TheAnnoyingOrange'' parody of Film/TheMatrix, there's a third green pill. It tastes like boogers, so he doesn't take it.
* In ''Website/ScrewAttack'''s TopTenList for greatest SpaceMarine, Stuttering Craig and Nick argue that the #1 spot should belong to Luke Skywalker of ''Franchise/StarWars'' and Christopher Blair from ''VideoGame/WingCommander''. After arguing for a bit, they agree on Creator/MarkHamill. (Mark played both roles.)

* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euvD1UNFugs this instructional video]] on orbital mechanics, the creator faces a dilemma: Give distances in kilometers and alienate his American viewers, or give distances in miles and be a scientific neanderthal. His solution? Give the distances in ''furlongs,'' thereby confusing everyone.

* [=DMs=] in any Pen-and-Paper RPG experience this happening way too frequently. In fact, the more the DM tries to prevent this from happening by being over-prepared, the more intent the players will be on making this happen.

* ''VisualNovel/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:[[WorseWithContext This is the only time in the entire game that this trope is able to be played straight.]]]]

* ''WebAnimation/RWBY'': Volume 8 has a trifecta of Third Options. [[spoiler:Ironwood has turned against the heroes for refusing to sacrifice Mantle for Atlas's salvation, to the point of shooting down civilian ships evacuating Mantle citizens and threatening to blow up Mantle if Penny doesn't surrender herself to him so he can access the Staff of Creation. Meanwhile, Penny is afflicted with a virus that will force her to open the Vault and then self-destruct, prompting her to ask Ruby to kill her so that she can avoid this and pass the Maiden powers onto Ruby]]. Their third options? [[spoiler:Use the [[HeelFaceTurn recently-defected]] Emerald's illusion powers to deceive and disable Ironwood, allow Penny to open the Vault so they can use the Staff of Creation to create a new robot body to transfer Penny's infected components to, and then use the Staff of Creation to create a portal network to evacuate the citizens of both Atlas and Mantle from the doomed cities.]]

--> ''... but when we got to the police officer station, it turned out there was a '''third''' possibility...''

* [[YourMom Yo momma]] is so stupid, she took the Pepsi Challenge and chose Jif.

Taking another option (be it third or fourth or so on) can also be the basis for a hidden or secret ending, particularly in interactive mediums like video games. Usually the third option is more hidden or difficult to obtain, requiring some lateral thinking or dedication to achieve. These endings can range from silly joke endings to either the GoldenEnding or TrueEnding, but are rarely ever a DownerEnding just because the authors actually want to reward the audience for going to such lengths.

** In a one-off strip, Dogbert asks Dilbert: "Do you see 'time' as a sequence of discrete events or simply a line of perception through infinite possibilities?" Dilbert answers that he sees it as more of a [[Magazine/{{Time}} magazine]].

** ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': Option A: [[spoiler:Everyone leaves the Neo World Program simulation, including the Junko AI, who will take over the bodies of the dead students]]. Option B: [[spoiler:Stay in the simulation to keep the AI trapped forever]]. Then [[TheCavalry Naegi, Kirigiri, and Togami]] come through in the clutch and propose Option C: [[spoiler:Force the simulation to shut down, which will prevent the AI's escape but the surviving students will both lose all their memories of their time in the simulation and regain the memories the simulation took away from them, meaning they will [[TomatoInTheMirror revert back to their previous Ultimate Despair selves]], while the dead students' real bodies will remain comatose]]. Fortunately, [[spoiler: even after choosing Option C, it seems the surviving students managed to keep their new memories in addition to their old ones, and did not revert back to Ultimate Despair. ''Anime/{{Danganronpa 3|TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool}}'' later revealed that Hajime managed to revive the comatose students as well]].

** ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': Option A: [[spoiler:Everyone leaves the Neo World Program simulation, including the Junko AI, who will take over the bodies of the dead students]]. Option B: [[spoiler:Stay in the simulation to keep the AI trapped forever]]. Then some help comes and offers Option C: [[spoiler:Force the simulation to shut down, which will prevent the AI's escape but the surviving students will both lose all their memories of their time in the simulation and regain the memories the simulation took away from them, meaning they will [[TomatoInTheMirror revert back to their previous Ultimate Despair selves]], while the dead students' real bodies will remain comatose]]. Fortunately, [[spoiler: even after choosing Option C, it seems the surviving students managed to keep their new memories in addition to their old ones, and did not revert back to Ultimate Despair. ''Anime/{{Danganronpa 3|TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool}}'' later revealed that Hajime/Izuru managed to revive the comatose students as well]].

* In [[https://eatherstar.tumblr.com/post/627173496769871872/you-miserable-cretin-theyre-nesting-in-my this]] ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' fan comic, Starscream and Thundercracker demand that Skywarp help them settle an argument about which is better - cats or dogs? Skywarp chooses bees.

* ''VisualNovel/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.]]

* TakeAThirdOption/{{Fanfiction}}

* In ''WebVideo/TheAnnoyingOrange'' parody of TheMatrix, there's a third green pill. It tastes like boogers, so he doesn't take it.