History Main / YouCantThwartStageOne

* ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'': Up until Volume 9, Arthur fails to stop Agrona, who intends to destroy Epheotus, from achieving any of his goals. While Arthur is able bring an end to the attack on Xyrus Academy, he is unable to prevent Agrona's servants from absconding with his friend Elijah and taking him to Alacrya to reactivate his original personality - Nico, the EvilFormerFriend of Arthur's past life King Grey. In spite of being one of the strongest mages on Dicathen, he is ultimately unable to prevent the Alacryans from conquering Dicathen, and in the climax of the war his bond Sylvie is forced to perform a HeroicSacrifice to save him, which in turn causes him to end up in the Relictombs. With Arthur out of the picture, the Alacryans are able to capture his LoveInterest Tessia and [[ReforgedIntoAMinion turn her into]] [[GrandTheftMe the vessel]] for a third reincarnate, the Legacy, who as it turns out is Grey and Nico's shared ChildhoodFriendLoveInterest Cecilia. Ultimately, it turns out this trope is PlayedWith in that [[spoiler:Arthur and Tessia were not the originally intended vessels for their respective reincarnates. As it turns out, when Sylvie sacrificed herself, she was displaced across time and space to bear witness to Grey's life. When Agrona took Grey's soul for his own use, Sylvie was able to snatch the soul before it could be brought to the intended vessel and brought it to the unborn Arthur. This forced Agrona to have to look outside of Alacrya for a vessel for the Legacy, which in turn altered his original plans significantly]].

** At the end of 2008, he finally manages to fulfill his plan and become the ruler of the universe[[note]](although the heroes had no way of stopping him due to his acting in complete secrecy, another set of good guys did try to find him in a side story, so this counts as an actual example[[/note]]. However, due to the toy-line getting put on a hiatus before the originally planned story could be told, he is defeated in the following saga.

* ''Literature/APracticalGuideToEvil'':
** Used by the GenreSavvy [[CreepyChild Tyrant]] of [[AncientGrome Helike]] as his main strategy (as far as we know...).
--->'''[[TheBard Aoede]]:''' So your grand plan, it's not really a plan, it's a juggler's philosophy.\\
'''Kairos:''' I've no idea what you could possibly mean.\\
'''Aoede:''' First step always works, so always have a first step going
** It's implied that this strategy was also used by Dread Emperor Irritant, "the Oddly Successful."
--->'''Dread Emperor Irritant:''' Hahahahaha. Ha. You can’t beat me now, this is the first part of my plan!
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Aegon's invasion. The Targaryen's had been on Dragonstone for nearly a hundred years following the Doom of Valyria. They were unable to begin their invasion sooner because their dragons at the time of the doom were too old to be of much use, and they had to wait a long time for their newborns to mature. Of course, no one thought to do anything about them while the dragons were young, resulting in the continent having to deal with three nearly full-grown dragons.
* ''Literature/SoonIWillBeInvincible'': Doctor Impossible manages to acquire all the components and build his DoomsdayDevice before he's finally stopped. It's a {{troperiffic}} tale, so the heroes even discuss that they're not likely to out-guess his EvilPlan before it's ready.
** Also averted: One of the past plans Dr. Impossible mentions never even got to the evil stage before being shut down: [[spoiler:the plan that created superhero Fatale]].

* ''Literature/TheSeventhTower'' series ends with the heroes fighting the BigBad to regain the [[CosmicKeystone Violet Keystone]] - if they're too slow, their world's defense fails. They catch up to him just when he's summoning his army.

* The ''Literature/LeftBehind'' series includes several points where the main characters could probably disrupt the plans of TheAntichrist, averting the Tribulation entirely (or at least greatly throwing off the predestined order of events). They usually either reason that they cannot or ''should'' not, because the Tribulation is [[BecauseDestinySaysSo God's will]].

* In the ''Literature/MediochreQSethSeries'', [[NebulousEvilOrganisation The Organisation Which I Represent]] is already on the ''tertiary phase'' of their plan before the series begins.

* ''Literature/TheNightOfWishes'': Knowing Beelzebub and Tyrannia can't make the Notion Potion without their enchanted parchment, Jacob and Maurizio try to destroy it. The parchment is able to defend itself.
* Happens a few times in ''Literature/StarTrekTheEugenicsWars'':
** When Gary and Roberta first infiltrate [[ElaborateUndergroundBase Chrysalis]] they've found that the scientists have already produced several classes worth of superchildren.
** When Khan begins to build his empire after the fall of the Soviet Union he ransacks Garys office, hacks the Beta 5, destroys the transporter and steals valuable information on the other superhumans and a DoomsdayDevice.
** Roberta tries to foil the launching of said device but Khan knew she or Gary would try to stop it and installed countermeasures.

* Happens in many of the ''Literature/AlexRider'' books, perhaps most notably in the fourth, ''Eagle Strike'', where Damian Cray actually succeeds in launching a nuclear strike against the sources of the world's drugs by hijacking Air Force One, and is only stopped when Alex's girlfriend Sabina is able to send the self-destruct command after Cray has been killed.
* In ''Literature/{{Pale}}'', the Kennet witch trio successfully recover the furs of the Carmine Beast, expose and imprison [[spoiler: the Girl by Candlelight]], hand Charles Abrams over to one of the most powerful magical practitioners in all of Canada to secure, and drive Maricica of Dark Autumn and the Wallflower Doppelganger Lis out of town in order to prepare for the battle for the empty Carmine Throne. Nevertheless, in the space of one night [[spoiler: Maricica breaks Charles out of the Blue Heron Institute, is able to drain the power of the Hungry Choir to allow Lis to usurp the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification spirit of Kennet]], and together they retrieve the furs from the folded space where the witches had hidden them, allowing Charles to enter the Carmine Contest with the power of the murdered Carmine Beast and the Hungry Choir.]]
* ''Literature/TheJenniferMorgue'': The villain {{invoke|dTrope}}s this with PostModernMagik that turns his destiny into an in-universe [[Franchise/JamesBond Bond villain]] narrative. He reasons that the villain's scheme is only foiled by Bond in the climax, so he can act with impunity until then, then disable the magic right before that final confrontation. However, he doesn't account for the narrative [[spoiler:both handing him the VillainBall and assigning the Bond role to someone unexpected.]]

** In Part 1: Phantom Blood, [[spoiler: Dio Brando successfully becomes a vampire and begins his plans for world domination. He is defeated by Jonathan at the height of his power.]]
** In Part 2: Battle Tendency, [[spoiler: Kars acquires the Red Stone of Aja, which he had spent the whole arc trying to get, and becomes the Ultimate Life Form. Joseph forces him into a position where [[AFateWorseThanDeath it'd almost be better for him to be able to die]].]]
** In Part 3: Stardust Crusaders, we find out that [[spoiler: Dio not only survived the boat's explosion at the end of Part 1, but was also able to attach his head to Jonathan's body.]] In the finale to the part, he manages to [[spoiler: kill Joseph and drink his blood, which removes the last few issues he had controlling Jonathan's stolen body. Jotaro manages to kill him after a grueling battle, and uses Dio's own blood to resurrect Joseph.]]
** In Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable, [[spoiler: Yoshikage Kira succeeds in changing his appearance and settling down for a quiet life. He's caught by the son of the man he's impersonating and DraggedOffToHell when Josuke and his allies defeat him.]]
** In Part 5: Golden Wind, [[spoiler: it's averted for perhaps the only time in the series. Diavolo is defeated when Giorno uses the Requiem Arrow, but Diavolo never got the chance to use the Arrow himself.]]
** In Part 6: Stone Ocean, [[spoiler: Enrico Pucci succeeds in killing off most of the main cast and using his Stand to accelerate time, creating his ideal universe. The universe is only temporary until Pucci can reach the original point of acceleration, and he is killed by Emporio (the SoleSurvivor among the main cast) before then, [[RetGone erasing him from existence]] and undoing everything he'd done as a result.]]
** In Part 7: Steel Ball Run, [[spoiler: Funny Valentine successfully reassembles Jesus's corpse, and gains an upgrade to [=D4C=] known as Love Train, which gives him an infinite dimensional barrier that tosses all misfortune directed at him somewhere else completely random in the multiverse. He's defeated when Johnny uses the Golden Spin to unlock his ultimate Stand, Tusk ACT 4, which can completely NoSell Love Train.]]
** In Part 8: [=JoJolion=], [[spoiler: it's played with, as Toru's plan to mass-produce the Locacaca Fruit for medical use and rise the Rock Humans over mankind is thwarted with; but his goal of getting the New Locacaca from the Higashikata Household is successful, as he eats the fruit to perform a exchange and cure his battle wounds... Only for Kaato to drop Tsurugi on him with her ability, and eliminate toru by forcing him to trade the rock illness.]]

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/EarthBound''. Everything that [[BigBad Giygas]] does to prevent the prophecy about the Chosen Four from becoming true, from [[spoiler:having [[TheDragon Pokey]] steal a helicopter to prevent them from reaching Summers or Scaraba, to launching an attack on Onett when the kids need to obtain a piece of the meteorite]], fails miserably, and in one case, even backfires. (If you need clarification on ''that'', [[spoiler:Apple Kid, Dr. Andonuts, and a Mr. Saturn were kidnapped into the Stonehenge base. This leads to them regrouping at Saturn Valley after Ness saves them, and brainstorming how they can help Ness and co bring Giygas down once and for all.]])

* Fibrizo from ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}''. [[spoiler:He had a SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum, but ended up getting DeaderThanDead with a sudden appearance and attack from the Lord of Nightmares.]]

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': During the [[FlashbackEpisode Turn Back The Pendulum gaiden]], Yoruichi challenges Urahara to develop the best-case solution to the worst-case scenario when they face exile and abandonment because of Aizen's machinations. The first half of the storyline is therefore a chess-game where Aizen always reaches the worst case scenario so that Urahara can come up with a best-case scenario to solve the situation. Because of Aizen being rendered the DiscOneFinalBoss, the indications are that the chess-game has switched villainous players from Aizen to Yhwach, leaving Urahara still planning the best solutions to the worst case scenarios. [[spoiler:It's eventually confirmed that Urahara is classified as one of the Five Special War Powers precisely because of his ability to devise a thousand different options for any given potential event.]]

* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', a version of Rogue Cheney arrives from an alternate future to help Hisui open Eclipse during the Grand Magic Games so that the dragons from the past would invade Fiore. Despite Lucy Heartfilia and Yukino Agria's efforts in closing Eclipse, Fairy Tail fails to stop the first half of the dragon invasion from occurring.

* ''Film/AustinPowersInGoldmember'' subverts this when Austin and Her Majesty's Secret Service manage to catch Dr. Evil and his minions in the planning stages of their latest scheme to TakeOverTheWorld, and send Dr. Evil to jail (prompting Austin to check "Catch Dr. Evil in the first act" off his bucket list). [[spoiler:It's then DoubleSubverted when Dr. Evil breaks out and continues the EvilPlan anyway, thanks to having already set things up with Goldmember via time travel.]] Dr. Evil later lampshades this in song:

* In ''Film/TheManchurianCandidate'' remake, all efforts to reach out to Marco fail [[spoiler:until he decides at the last possible second to have himself and his mother get shot instead of the president-elect, thwarting the conspiracy's plans]].

*** And much like ''[=StarCraft=]'' before it, ''Frozen Throne'' starts with the Night Elves dealing with the aftermath of the first game, moves on to the Alliance campaign setting up Illidan's powerbase, and then ends with Arthas [[spoiler:beating all comers around the titular ''Frozen Throne'' before putting on Ner'Zul's armor and becoming the Lich King, with the unlimited power the position entails no longer kept in check by the Throne's prison.]]

** In the Original Series, [[spoiler:[[BigBad Tigerclaw]] had a fairly simple plan. He would kill [=ThunderClan=]'s deputy Redtail, counting on his reputation to get him appointed the new deputy. Then he would stage a coup and kill the current leader Bluestar so that he could become the new leader. It seems to be subverted when after he kills Redtail, Bluestar appoints Lionheart as deputy instead, but it's double subverted when Lionheart dies in a battle and then Tigerclaw becomes deputy. And despite hero Fireheart's best efforts, the coup starts anyway, and he only protects Bluestar by fighting against Tigerclaw, who is exiled for his treachery after the battle.]]
** [[spoiler:This trope is shown further in the books after Tigerclaw's exile. He manages to accomplish all his goals anyway by becoming [[MeaningfulRename Tigerstar]], leader of [=ShadowClan=], and kills Bluestar with a pack of dogs. And while Fireheart fights to stop Tigerstar's new plan to unite the Clans under him, ultimately Tigerstar's EvilPlan isn't foiled until near the end of ''The Darkest Hour'' when Scourge kills him and becomes the FinalBoss.]]

** Tarquin's motivation for being a villain is this. He knows that ''eventually'' some hero will come and topple his empire and kill him... but until then, he's at Stage One and living the high life.

** The Buu Saga, wherein Goku and Vegeta, who were at least twice as strong as TheDragon and hundreds of times stronger than the BigBad, not only failed to stop [[SealedEvilInACan Majin Buu's revival]] but agreed to cause it so they they could settle their infighting. Cue tens of manga chapters and anime episodes of trying to undo the damage. [[spoiler:''Manga/DragonBallSuper'' reveals that Future Trunks ''did'' thwart Stage One when Babidi came to call in his own timeline: with the Supreme Kai's help, he killed Babidi and Dabura before Buu could awaken, thus never having to fight Buu in the first place.]] In general, Future Trunks is the subversion that does things the sensible way in this franchise, though mostly off-screen or as an afterthought.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Robert's plan to assassinate Daenerys in order to avoid a potential invasion by her Dothraki husband's forces is botched. Even when word of Daenery's dragons and her position as Queen of Mereen reaches King's Landing, the Lannister's are far too busy dealing with more immediate threats to risk sending out forces to take out Dany and her dragons while they are young. So, [[spoiler: by the time Cersei manages to usurp the Iron Throne, it's far too late to do anything about Dany, and as her long-sought reign begins Cersei is almost immediately faced with a full-fledged invasion of a massive army of Dothraki and three relatively mature dragons.]]

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''; turns out Snake could've stopped Stage One easily [[spoiler:if he died. Ocelot ''accidentally'' killed one of the hostages with the PAL codes (it's revealed later he had his reasons), so they couldn't launch Rex's nuke. Except that Armstech had created a special card key which would deactivate the nuke (if it was activated) or activate the nuke (if it was deactivated). All they had to do was convince Snake that they had the codes, and Snake [[NiceJobBreakingItHero went along and completed Stage One for the terrorists]] ("You found the key and even activated the warhead for us")]].

** Perhaps if Ocelot, Liquid, Zero, or Big Boss had been killed off early, the dangerous conspiracies would never have even taken place at all.
*** The HD Collection lampshades this with the Trophy/Achievement "Problem Solved, Series Over", which you get for killing Ocelot in the prequel ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater MGS3]]'' (which results in a NonStandardGameOver).

* ''VideoGame/TrueCrimeStreetsOfLA'' had a branching storyline, so it was entirely possible to completely screw up the bad guys' plans and get them all killed before the plot could come to fruition. However, this gets you a bad ending, since the plot never had a chance to get underway and as a result you never were able to piece together exactly what the hell was going on in the first place.
** More importantly, in the bad ending, [[AntiHero Nick Kang]] loses his job for accidentally killing the BigBad (or letting him die) and remains bitter for not finding closure. In the [[FromBadToWorse REAALLY Bad]] ending, [[spoiler:Nick's brother is murdered, prompting him to go [[HeWhoFightsMonsters full-on]] [[NinetiesAntiHero vigilante]], the BigBad escapes, and TheDragon teases Nick about knowing about what happened to [[DisappearedDad Nick's father]] just seconds before dying himself.]]

*** However, knowing this, [[spoiler:Sheogorath subverts this by making YOU the next Sheogorath, thus there will still be a Sheogorath when Jyggalag appears]].
* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', Sora spends so much time trying to lock every keyhole that [[spoiler:he doesn't even find out the Princesses of Heart are being kidnapped until he finds them in the final level, where they're being used for Stage One of "Ansem's" takeover.]] THEN [[spoiler:Sora [[BodyHorror carves out his own heart]] and completes Stage One for the guy.]]

* ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'':
** ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'': Did anyone thought that Banner's would stay cured from the Hulk for good?
** ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': The X-Men can not defeat the army that came to capture them at the mansion. If they did, we wouldn't see them all in the Weapon X complex.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'': The Beldam manages to trick Coraline just like how she did with the other three children, and Coraline only discovers it on the third visit to the Other World (that is also the visit where the Beldam kinapts her parents). Its only on the fourth visit that Coraline manages to find the ghost children's freedom, her parent's freedom and her own freedom from the Beldam.

Has nothing to do with [[NintendoHard being unable to]] ''[[UnwinnableByDesign beat]]'' [[GuideDangIt Stage 1]].