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Xanatos gambit

noun

Etymology

Coined on TV Tropes in reference to the character David Xanatos from Gargoyles, who is depicted as a criminal mastermind who often claims victory after his apparent defeat.

Definitions

  1. A subtle plan (usually villainous) that cannot be foiled, such that attempts to defeat it…

    A subtle plan (usually villainous) that cannot be foiled, such that attempts to defeat it actually further its creator's goals.

    • It strikes me, as it no doubt has struck many of you, that this strategy is cynical. What may not have struck you is how cynical, how much of a Xanatos Gambit, this game their playing really is.
    • Beale can insist that he brilliantly put Hugo voters in the jaws of a Xanatos Gambit whereby every choice is a losing move[…]
    • "How do we know this isn't part of some elaborate Xanatos Gambit?" I left off staring at the traffic. "Some elaborate what?" "Some sort of complicated scheme. I mean, how do we know this isn't all exactly what she wants us to do?"

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for Xanatos gambit. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA