History SpannerInTheWorks / Literature

** Draco's father, Lucius, also ends up putting a spanner in the works of Voldemort through [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat needlessly petty personal vengeance]]. [[spoiler:Lucius hijacking Voldemort's teenage diary (which he didn't know was a SoulJar) for a personal vendetta against Arthur Weasley not only led to the diary being destroyed, but it provided Dumbledore damning intelligence to track down all the rest of Voldemort's horcruxes.]]

* In one of Francoise Rivier and Michel Laponte's ''Jonathan Cap'' books, recurrent character and local PluckyGirl Juliette becomes this. [[spoiler: She has her appendix removed in a Parisian private clinic and notices that both her doctor and the nurse in charge of her are acting strange, notifying Jonathan's {{Kid Sidekick}}s Alex and Nico about it so they can call Jonathan and investigate.]] It turns out [[spoiler: the doctor is ''the BigBad'' of the book, with a complex {{plan}} involving an Arabian prince and his BodyDouble (the BigBad's "disciple"), and the nurse is his forced accomplice because he threatened to kill her if she didn't collaborate.]] The plan would've gone smoothly, [[spoiler: had the BigBad not been pretty much forced by the circumstances to be the doctor in charge of Juliette's emergency surgery...]]

*** She's hardly the only spanner. There's the Medusans who figure out how to make their own rifles, and a man who has a massive grudge against the Manticoran navy and thus makes a raid literally blow up in their faces.

** Glaurung was a spanner in the works for Turin, by revealing to Turin that his wife was his sister. oops.

*** "Literature/TheMule": Seldon is unable to foresee the threat posed by the ({{mutant|s}}) Mule -- someone capable of [[EmotionControl rewriting your emotions permanently]] -- so when the Foundation watches Seldon's new message, expecting to hear a [[PropheciesAreAlwaysRight prophecy]] about the war they're fighting against the Mule's expanding Empire, they hear instead a completely wrong prophecy about a Foundation civil war ([[ConflictKiller that never happened, since the factions involved all saw the Mule as a greater threat]]. Except in the penultimate chapter, Ebling Mis says Seldon did expect it, [[spoiler:and constructed the Second Foundation to defend against the threat]].

* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCarribeanL Legends of the Brothers Court'': In the first novel, Villanueva seriously hampers the {{Big Bad}}'s efforts by forcibly inducting the man into his crew right before he can infiltrate the Black Pearl and start a mutiny. Instead, the mutiny is on Villanueva's ship, and he spends several weeks in the brig.

%% * Thomas and Minho ''finally'' get in on some Spanner action at the beginning of ''Literature/TheDeathCure''. [[spoiler:Everything previous to that was planned by WICKED and there was no point at which they were not under WICKED's control]].

--> '''[[FemmeFatale Ginette]]:''' [[I]]t was like a nature vacation where you go to shoot the tame rock hen for dinner, and waiting there is a giant constrictor.

* The ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' book ''A Feast For Crows'' has Lysa. And Jaime. And Robb. And Allerie. And Roose. And so on and so forth. Westeros is so awash in spanners it's a wonder that it's ever experienced peace. But of course, as anyone who's finished ''Dance with Dragons'' knows, [[spoiler:Varys is the motherfucking ''king'' of all spanners.]]
** As early as the first book, Bran [[spoiler:witnessing Jaime and Cersei's incest]] and [[spoiler:getting pushed out a window]] is a huge spanner. It was a complete coincidence and no one -- not even chessmasters like Littlefinger or Varys -- could have predicted it, yet it directly sparked a chain of events that would eventually lead to [[spoiler:the War of the Five Kings]], the main conflict of the series.
** Joffrey can also be a spanner at times: While for the most part he's fairly predictable, his cruelty and insanity occasionally lead him to do things that no one would expect, such as [[spoiler:ordering Ned Stark's execution, despite his mother and Varys and Grand Maester Pycelle all telling him to let Stark join the Night's Watch instead]]. And let's not forget that even before he became king, he was the one who [[spoiler:sent an assassin to murder the comatose Bran, just because he'd heard a passing comment by his father about how the boy would be better off dead]].
** This is [[spoiler: Littlefinger's]] [[OpportunisticBastard entire MO]], in a nutshell: create chaos, often by rooting out other people's plots to aim [[UnwittingPawn targeted spanners]] at and profit! Alternatively, he simply creates some spanners by [[ProfessionalGambler supporting and/or paying random, minor players]] (who may or may not grow to become somebodies rather less minor at a later date) to dot themselves about the board, and ''mostly'' lets them [[ChessMaster bumble about getting in the way of major plans pretty much by themselves]], for the most part [[spoiler: (OK, some rigging of their behaviour through blackmail, intimidation and incidental holding of hostages/wards/debts ''may'' be involved when specific favours are called in by him here and there and/or steady pressure applied to make certain actions more likely -- but, ''mostly'', they are actually left to their own devices).]] Then, once the damage hits, he swoops in, [[XanatosSpeedChess trusting in his own ability to seize the opportunities thus created on the fly]] to see him come out with a gain or two. This all makes him incredibly dangerous and unpredictable, which in turn makes him hard to manipulate and obscures his true intentions.
** Edmure Tully combines this with NiceJobBreakingItHero when, on his own initiative, he leads a successful attack on Lannister forces that not only derails Robb's plans to trap said Lannister force in their territory but delays them enough to receive word of Stannis' attack on King's Landing. This allows Tywin Lannister and his forces to go be BigDamnHeroes, derailing ''Stannis's'' bid for power.
** One of the lingering plot points is [[spoiler: the state of Robb Stark's successor. Robb 's death has lead to a power vacuum in the North. [[TheChessmaster Knowing that this may happen]], Robb named his half-brother Jon his successor in the North, ahead of his younger ''and'' full-blooded younger sister Sansa. Considering that poor Sansa was, at the time, a political prisoner, this will screw over both the Lannister's and Littlefinger's ambitions to take control of North if this comes to light.]]
** Arya Stark embodies this, by virtue of being the [[{{TomboyPrincess}} complete]] [[{{LittleMissBadass}} opposite]] of what's expected of a sheltered, aristocratic girl. The Lannister's ambush and capture of the Starks is derailed because they didn't expect Ned's nine-year-old daughter (who had been overlooked in favour of her more important sister) to have the skills to escape or a swordsmaster to help her. For the rest of the series, virtually all the nobles assume she couldn't have survived on the run and is long gone. [[spoiler: In fact, Arya has been present at multiple crucial events across Westeros disguised as a commoner, including contributing to the Fall of Harrenhal, allying with the world's most infamous assassins, and witnessing the murder of her family at the Red Wedding. Along with her little brothers Bran and Rickon -- who are also assumed dead -- her survival means House Stark isn't nearly as broken as everyone thinks and its heirs are still out there.]]
** Balon Greyjoy is a big one for the Starks, and the fandom often considers him the worst strategist in Westeros. After receiving a request for an alliance from Robb Stark against the Lannisters, Balon proceeds with his plan to attack the North (and thus the one person offering to ally with him) with a naval force large enough to defeat some strategic points in the North with the element of surprise, but not actually near large enough to hold them. It's the equivalent of Iceland deciding to attack Washington D.C. during the U.S. Civil War. Sure enough, the conquests are overturned over the next few books, and the Lannisters shrug off Balon's request for alliance/rewards because he's already done the work for them before getting them to agree to any reciprocation. He falls under the category of a SpannerInTheWorks because his military strategy worked only to assist the Lannisters at the Stark's expense, and resulted in little gains and bad consequences for his own people.

** Glorfindel was a spanner in the works during the Siege of Gondolin by being [[CrazyAwesome crazy]] and tackling a [[FallenAngel balrog]]. It resulted in his death, but saved Idril, her husband Tuor and their son Earendil. Due to his [[HeroicSacrifice heroic sacrifice]] he got reincarnated and given [[WhiteMagic angel powers]]. He then goes on to be a spanner in the works again, during ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' when he randomly shows up and takes Frodo to Rivendell. During this sequence he uses his powers to [[ScareEmStraight terrify the Ringwraiths]]. Sauron evidently did not realize Glorfindel was back.

* ''Literature/TheMarvellousLandOfSnergs'': Mother Meldrum's scheme to infiltrate Banrive, abduct Joe and Sylvia and flee to a secret shelter while Golithos murders the king fails because Golithos -- who she had instructed to take care of her pets in the meantime -- accidentally lets her cat Gubbins run away. Gubbins is found and recognized by Gorbo, who follows Gubbins as the pet looks for Meldrum.

** Glorfindel was a spanner in the works during the Siege of Gondolin by being [[CrazyAwesome crazy]] and tackling a [[FallenAngel balrog]]. It resulted in his death, but saved Idril, her husband Tuor and their son Earendil. Due to his [[HeroicSacrifice heroic sacrifice]] he got reincarnated and given [[WhiteMagic angel powers]]. He then goes on to be a spanner in the works again, during ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''when he randomly shows up and takes Frodo to Rivendell. During this sequence he uses his powers to [[ScareEmStraight terrify the Ringwraiths]]. Sauron evidently did not realize Glorfindel was back.

** As revealed in Tolkien's other works, it's a little more a question of faith on Gandalf's part; he is literally an angel, a messenger from the divine, and he is certain that there is a god who watches over the people of Middle Earth. His cryptic comments about "the pity of Bilbo deciding the fate of many," and "my heart saying Gollum has a further role to play before the end," coupled with Frodo's growing sensitiveness to these things and his threat to Gollum that he could, "command him to leap off a cliff or throw himself into a fire" certainly hint that the BigGood Eru willed Gollum to be the Spanner.

* Kender, gully dwarves and gnomes in the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' series...''especially'' (by their very nature) the kender. While all of the above races have the ability to change events in the past through time travel, due to their origins as races created by the Greygem of Gargath (pure Chaos-in-a-rock), kender have innate fearlessness, insatiable curiosity, guileless but mischievous personalities, and chronic kleptomania ''as racial traits''. Tasselhoff Burrfoot, for example, is both the UnwittingPawn of [[MagnificentBastard Raistlin's]] evil schemes and the only person unpredictable enough to screw them up. One of the most dreaded sounds on Krynn is the sound of a kender saying 'Oops.'
** Given the choice between being locked in a room with a hungry dragon or a bored kender, anyone with any sense picks the dragon.
*** Remember, the cruelest thing one can do to a kender is lock him up. The cruelest thing one can do to anyone else is to lock them up with a kender.