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  • Done for humor in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Almost Got 'Im". Harley Quinn captures Catwoman and ties her to a conveyor belt heading for a massive meatgrinder. Batman arrives, and catches Harley, who then taunts that he can either bring her in, or rescue Catwoman, but not both. Batman then... nonchalantly reaches over to the circuit breaker and shuts off the power to the grinder, to which Harley responds, "Good call--Help!"
  • Played with in Avatar: The Last Airbender, where the extremely aged and hunchbacked King Bumi gives Aang a choice between two equally fearsome looking opponents. Feeling clever, Aang promptly picks Bumi himself, who turns out be one of the most powerful Earthbenders in the world and promptly kicks Aang around the arena like a football. The whole point of this and the other exercises were trying to think outside-the-box, and Bumi made the third option so obvious by saying "choose your opponent" and standing right in front of him that taking the third wasn't really that creative.
    • This trope crops up again in the series finale, where Aang is forced to decide whether to let Ozai live and carry out his genocide on the Earth Kingdom, or kill him outright. Aang manages to get around this by learning how to Spiritbend by getting Touched by Vorlons and permanently disabling Ozai's ability fo firebend.
  • Nearly subverted, certainly lampshaded in The Batman, where D.A.V.E., a robot programmed as "Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind", forces Batman to choose between Alfred's life and his secret identity. Batman tries to free Alfred through different means, only for D.A.V.E. to slam him against the wall of the Batcave, shouting that he knew he would try to take a third, more favorable option.
  • In one episode of South Park, Towelie was faced with either preventing the boys and their new game system from falling into a death trap, or getting high from a joint the evil towel was taunting him with. Towelie's response? "I choose.... BOTH!"
  • In one episode of Family Guy, Peter and his father-in-law sell Meg some marijuana, creating an implicit choice between the money and the pot, so Mr. Pewterschmidt hits Meg over the head and declares "Now we have the pot and the money!"
  • In the 90's X-Men animated series, Bishop goes back in time to stop Apocalypse from causing a global plague. But in Cable's time (further into the future), Cable realizes that if Bishop saves the present, it would doom his future. The plague would allow humanity to develop antibodies that would help the people in Cable's time survive further plagues. So basically, if Cable wants to save his people, he has to help Apocalypse win. His third option? Expose Wolverine to the virus so his Healing Factor would create antibodies to counter the virus, thus giving it a cure. This allows Cable to save the future and the present.
    • Also used at the end of the Dark Phoenix saga. The Phoenix Force says that there IS a chance to revive Jean Grey, but at the cost of someone else's life. Rather than either keeping Jean dead to not kill someone else, or have either Scott or Logan take up the Force's offer and die in Jean's place... the choice taken is to simply take a few years off every present X-Men's lives and then infuse them into Jean's body. It works, and Jean returns to life.
  • Utilized in the short-lived Dragon's Lair cartoon. The show would often go into commercial breaks with Dirk facing an A or B choice. In the original video game, one would mean safe passage the other, instant, hideous death. In the cartoon, both meant death. But, as the narration would smugly inform, "Dirk saw there was a better way".
  • Used in The Powerpuff Girls episode "Three Girls and a Monster", when Blossom and Buttercup are having an argument over how best to beat the Monster of the Week, with Bubbles stuck in the middle. Well-calculated attacks don't seem to touch it, and trying to beat the crap out of it doesn't work - it doesn't even seem to leave a scratch. So, what does Bubbles finally do to beat it? Politely ask it to leave. And it WORKS.
    • Also used in the episode "Simian Says" where Mojo Jojo kidnapped the narrator and narrated the girls doing his bidding. When they found him out and asked where he wanted to be punched, stomach or head, he replied "How about an option of the third type?" He didn't get to take it.
    • Also used in "Not so Awesome Blossom," where Blossom has to decide between attacking Mojo and risk having the Professor fall to his death or accept him as her ruler. She ends up Taking a Third Option in an unexpected way.
  • The first Futurama movie has the scammer aliens give the heroes and their fleet of ships the option to either surrender unconditionally, or be destroyed. So Bender shoots a Doomsday Device at them.

 Nudar: You have two choices: unconditional surrender...

Leela: Never!

Nudar: Or total annihilation.

Leela: Also never!

Nudar: You have thirty seconds to decide.

Leela: NEVER!!!!

  • In the Space Ghost episode, "Zorak", Zorak kidnaps Space Ghost's teen sidekicks and forces him to fight his giant hornets without his power bands, or his sidekicks will die. After fighting the wasps for a few minutes, Space Ghost puts his power bands back on and defeats the hornets, saving his sidekicks shortly after. The third option, if you missed it, was "remember that all your enemies are idiots," or "both" for short.
  • In a Teen Titans episode, Starfire's pet worm is torn in a decision between his father and Starfire, who raised him with love. Rather than joining either, he takes a third option, and explodes.
    • In the first season finale, Robin has to choose between serving as Slade's apprentice or letting a bunch of Slade's micro-probes kill his friends. His choice? Infect himself with the probes so that he and his friends share the same fate; Slade's so obsessed with winning that he'd rather let the Titans live than "lose" by allowing his apprentice to die.
  • When Homer shows Kang and Kodos are impersonating the 1996 presidential candidates on The Simpsons, they note the revelation makes no difference.

 Kodos: It's true, we are aliens. But what are you going to do about it? It's a two-party system; you have to vote for one of us.

Man 1: He's right, this is a two-party system.

Man 2: Well, I believe I'll vote for a third-party candidate.

Kang: Go ahead, throw your vote away!

  • Happened in Toy Story while Andy is playing. Woody has to choose which of his friends will he save.

 "I choose Buzz Lightyear!"

"Wait a minute, he's not one of the options!"

  • In Tangled... Mother Gothel is about to forcefully take Rapunzel away, but Rapunzel promises she'll go with Mother Gothel willingly if she can use her hair to heal a fatally injured Flynn first. Flynn quickly takes a third option by cutting Rapunzel's hair before she can heal him, allowing Rapunzel her freedom while denying Mother Gothel from her source of eternal youth and denying himself a chance to be healed from his mortal injury. He dies, but then the Swiss Army Tears kick in and he's revived.
  • Elmer Season.
  • American Dad!, "Bully for Steve": With his own father acting as a bully to try and toughen him up, Steve is left with two options. Get tougher, or face more bullying from Stan. What does Steve do? He finds Stan's old bully, Stelio Kontos, who promptly gives Stan a complete ass beating.
  • Parodied in The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones when Spacely tells George that we won't go "unrewarded" for saving the plant:

 Spacely: I could make you vice-president, or give you stock in the company, but I've come up with a better idea.

George: Oh, what's that, sir?

Spacely: I'm not going to dock your pay, for the time you were gone from your job!

George: Oh.....thank you, sir...

  • In the "Double Date" episode of Justice League Unlimited, the Huntress has the option to either kill Mandragora in front of his own son for murdering her father, or to allow them to escape unscathed to a better life overseas. She chooses to capture and arrest Mandragora instead, a far less traumatizing event for the aforementioned son.
  • The Adventure Time episode "Another Way" is pretty much all about this trope, with pretty much every conversation ending with Finn shouting "My way!" Most notably, when a tree stump (don't ask) tells him that he can only take the "smell bad forever" path or the "hair falls out forever" path, he kicks the signpost down and charges through the thorny bushes between the paths.
  • In one of Disney's Cinderella's direct-to-video sequels, Prince Charming wants to go looking for "the girl who fits the crystal slipper" but his father the King is VERY reluctant to let him do so. At some point, the two discuss the matter atop of a flight of stairs, next to a huge window, and the King shouts "I forbid you to take one single step down these stairs!" (paraphrased). Unwilling to just push his Royal Father away but not really wanting to stay in the Palace either, Charming just smiles and says "okay" before he takes his third option: jumping through the window.


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