When different agendas come into conflict, it's a Foregone Conclusion in most cases that one and only one will emerge triumphant. When this happens, the expected result is that it's one of the major chessmasters who comes out on top (especially one who turns out to have been playing all the other players to their own ends), but it's just as likely that the final winner is a minor player, a Spanner in the Works who unknowingly sabotages the efforts of the would-be masterminds, or even someone who's simply lucky enough to be alive when the dust finally settles.
In many cases, the Last Plan Standing is nothing of the sort — the winner is simply someone who happened to be in the right place in the right time and seized victory while all the other players had their attention elsewhere.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- After the Final Battle of Code Geass, Lelouch is the uncontested ruler of the Holy Britannian Empire, only to arrange for his own assassination so that his sister Nunnally ultimately ends up as ruler, with her Knight of Zero Suzaku Kururugi at her side.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, a world full of Magnificent Bastards and God Wannabes, the one who benefits most from all the conflicts is the new Führer Grumman, whose master plan to seize control is essentially "Keep your head down and say nothing."
- In Neon Genesis Evangelion, between all the resources SEELE threw after achieving Instrumentality, and Gendo scheming against them to further his own agenda, it turns out that Yui had successfully rigged the game from the start, with help from Fuyutsuki, to both foil SEELE's plans and become a god-like creature, even without having a physical body anymore. It is somewhat vague if Gendo's plan would have actually interfered with hers, but the question became effectively academic when Rei rebelled against him.
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality has Lucius Malfoy actually lecturing his son Draco to make his plans as simple and practical as possible, because falling to Complexity Addiction (like his rival Harry has) is putting his chances of this trope happening in the hands of sheer uncontrollable luck.
- Ultimate Video Rumble 2: The Gambit Pileup of villain groups resolves with Demitri Maximoff methodically brainwashing the leadership of half of them (plus several other competitors) into serving his goals, and convincing the Dark Guy to give him a power-up for good measure. Once it's clear he's holding all the cards at about the 2/3 mark, the rest either (grudgingly) allies with him or give up on their own plots to focus on taking him down.
Films — Live-Action
- Happens in every Pirates of the Caribbean movie to date, but especially Dead Man's Chest, with Norrington emerging as the surprise victor.
- In Maverick, after a whole film dealing with other con men, angry gunfighters, more brutal thieves and the long odds of winning a card tournament in order to get a lot of money, Bret Maverick finally gets it all or rather half — he was expecting something like this to happen so he concealed half of his loot inside of his boots beforehand stolen from him by fellow con artist and up to that point Love Interest Annabelle, who sees the whole insanity going on decides to just wait until all hell calms down, walks in on Bret and his father while they are taking a bath with a gun in her hand, takes the money and leaves. Bret and his father call it fair cop and look forward to how much fun they are going to have getting the money back.
Live Action TV
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine: during the series finale, the final heist descends into yet another Gambit Pileup, as per usual, but Bill suddenly betrays everyone and absconds with the prize. But the winner winds up being Hitchcock, whose plan was: pretend to retire from the Nine-Nine, hide out in the Beaver Trap and...not actually come up with a proper heist plan, and accept Bill's offer to sell it to him 40 bucks. Naturally, Jake decides they can't accept Hitchcock at the ultimate heist champion, and returns to the precinct so the annual heists can continue into the future.
- If the villains aren't all on one team in Kamen Rider, or even if they are, one of them usually has this in mind:
- Kamen Rider Double is mostly concerned with the infighting between the various members of the Sonozaki family: Saeko's goal to succeed her father Ryubee and run the family as a straightforward mafia peddling a Psycho Serum drug, Ryubee's goal to convert all humans into Energy Beings to prevent any possible extinction, Mad Doctor Isaka's goal to gather as many superpowers for himself as possible, their benefactor Foundation X's goal to use Ryubee's research to conduct a purge of all non-supers, and more. The final plan that the heroes have to foil is Foundation X's: there's still two more plans left after that, but they cancel each other out in the epilogue without the involvement of the protagonists.
- Kamen Rider OOO is a pileup between all the various schemes of the Greeed, with Dr. Maki being the one who comes out on top after he tricks them into making him a more powerful Humanoid Abomination than any of them ever were, then sets them all up to perish at OOO's hands one after another so he can use their remains to end the world.
- Kamen Rider Gaim runs through the schemes of Yggdrasil, Yggdrasil's lead scientist Ryoma, multiple street gangs, and several different aliens each with their own goals, before finally settling on Kaito as the final boss when the dust settles, planning to use Helheim's power to create a more egalitarian world. And his isn't even the last plan, as that distinction goes to the avatar of Helheim itself, who gets what he wants as long as anyone else wins.
- Kamen Rider Ex-Aid goes through an abundance of villains abusing the powers of the Bugster Virus for their own ends before settling on the final scheme being Masamune's plan to infect everyone with the virus and use it to rule the world.
- Kamen Rider Saber has five different villains, four of whom are set up for failure by Storious so that he can take all of their individual power sources and reconstitute them into the Book of Omniscience.
- On Lost, when the dust finally settles after all the years of scheming and back stabbing between Jack, Locke, Ben, Widmore, Jacob, and the Smoke Monster, it is kind-hearted Hurley who comes to rule the island.
Literature
- Simon at the end of Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy is at least a partial example.
Theatre
- Proving once again that Shakespeare did it first, Fortinbras in Hamlet is established as seeking revenge on Denmark for past grievances. He ends up having the crown fall into his lap because all the legitimate claimants have killed each other.
- Liquid Snake at the end of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. His only real involvement with the plan was getting Solid Snake involved so that he was able to be released. However, the enormous circle of backstabbing between Dead Cell, Solidus, Olga and Ocelot cancelled them out to the point he was able to abscond with RAY. On a bigger scale, the Patriots managed to get exactly what they wanted out of the situation, successfully testing both their mind control system and eliminating one of their major enemies. And in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Big Boss returns from the dead to effectively reveal himself as the Last Plan Standing for the entire series - the entire events of MGS2 and MGS4 were engineered to free the world from the grip of the Patriots.
- By the end of Legacy of Kain: Defiance, Raziel finally stops being manipulated by everyone, and lets himself be absorbed by the Reaver, so that Kain can use the Reaver to defeat the Elder God.
- In Adam Cadre's Varicella, the Villain Protagonist is tasked with manipulating a complex web of court intrigue so that he becomes the last and only choice for Regent. It backfires spectacularly when the young prince, who has become evil as a result of his upbringing, ascends the throne, eliminates the last obstacles in his path - including Varicella himself! - and declares war on everybody.
- In Final Fantasy Tactics, Delita marries Princess Ovelia and is crowned King Delita. However, this example is actually subverted. Delita is stabbed by Ovelia, and stabs her in return. Even if he does survive, he has lost everything that he was fighting for in his quest for power, and hundreds of years later, the revelation of the Durai Papers vindicates Ramza as the real hero of the game of the war.
- Of the many agendas from Dealer in Mega Man Star Force 3, only one really comes to fruition, and that's Heartless betraying them and using Meteor G as a means to contact Kelvin.
- The Closed Fist ending of Jade Empire involves you turning upon the two entities who had been using you as a pawn and destroying them. You next combine their power and rule as a god.
- The New Order Last Days Of Europe: This is ultimately how the United States can win the Cold War. CIA analysis provided to the Republican-Democrat administration suggests that Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire are both heading into economic and political insolvency (in the 70's and 80's, respectively), which will leave the USA as the sole remaining superpower by dint of mere survival. The only problem is the accuracy of the prediction, and fending off the National Progressive Party while keeping the content with "watch and wait and see".
Web Original
- Dream SMP: The Red Banquet ends up with a Gambit Pileup, with both the Eggpire and the pro-Omelette (anti-Eggpire) attendees using a multitude of back-up plans to try to out-gambit the other side. In the end, the pro-Omelette side manages to score a victory... using a plan that is completely independent of the pre-established gambits, involving an uninvited pro-Omelette guest recruiting his equally pro-Omelette One-Man Army Arch-Enemy and a mercenary to crash the Banquet and take on the Eggpire.
- Sluggy Freelance: Torg allies with Monicruel, among others, to raid Hereti-Corp's corporate servers while wiping their backups. His plan would leave him in possession of the data (with no intention of sharing it with the rest of the alliance), but Monicruel captures Torg's teammate Sasha and demands control of the information herself. Then the Torglodytes infiltrate Monicruel's hideout and liberate both Sasha and the case full of stolen hard drives; Hereti-Corp gets the last laugh as the former seizes the opportunity to snag the latter, revealing herself as a mole.
- Arabia and the Middle East were fought over by the Ottoman Empire, Germany, Britain and France, who were aided by the Rashidis (allied with the Ottomans), the Hashemites (allied with Britain), and the Saudis (led by Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud), along with others such as the Bedouins and the Ikhwan. As the region (plus a good deal more of the area) is now known as Saudi Arabia, it's clear who won. The Hashemites came in second, holding much of Mesopotamia and remaining in power in Jordan today. Most of the rest of the regional powers were devastated and replaced by entirely new states.
- Also happened in 1917-1921 Russia, where Czarists, Liberals, Anarchists, several Western Powers, Poles, and even a Czech Legion (prisoners liberated from Siberia) intermingled. Who would have bet on the tiny Bolshevik faction back in 1917?
- The United States might have been this after the Gambit Pileup that was World War I, as all the other major powers were devastated by war and falling apart. Instead, they went back to isolationism.
- Henry VII of England was this in Real Life. William Shakespeare's play Richard III does a Historical Hero Upgrade on him, portraying him as the rightful King. And many people forget that other Yorkists attempted this on him.
