History EngineeredHeroics / WesternAnimation

** PlayedForDrama in the series finale, [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E24TheEndingOfTheEndPart1 "The Ending of the End"]], when Discord reveals that he deliberately brought back a number of villains and planned to have them attack Twilight's coronation, with their defeat resulting in her confidence being boosted. However, this ends up backfiring horribly, as not only did Discord give them more power than ever before, which they then used to steal ''his'' magic (meaning he can't act as her safety net), but he also threatened and blackmailed them into working together "[[ImpliedDeathThreat lest they end up like Sombra]]" which incentivized them to pool their resources and collaborate as a far bigger threat than they were individually. [[EpicFail He doesn't even manage to boost her confidence]] as Twilight begins doubting whether ''any'' of her recent victories were real, causing her to have a crisis of confidence at the worst possible time.

** In the same finale, this is Chrysalis' plan for the Windigoes. Instead of dealing with them immediately, she'll wait for them to turn Equestria into a frozen wasteland, and ''then'' destroy them, to put all Equestria's citizens in her debt.

** In one episode where the Planet Express crew become volunteer firefighters, the others notice that Bender has been present at most of the fires and think he's been setting them on purpose so he could play hero. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope For once, however, Bender is entirely innocent]]. In reality, the fires had been set by a fire elemental that Bender had unknowingly been harboring inside his body.]]

** PlayedForDrama in the series finale, [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E24TheEndingOfTheEndPart1 "The Ending of the End"]], when Discord reveals that he deliberately brought back a number of villains and planned to have them attack Twilight's coronation, with their defeat resulting in her confidence being boosted. However, this ends up backfiring horribly, as not only did Discord have his magic stolen from him by said villains (meaning he can't act as her safety net), but Twilight begins doubting whether ''any'' of her recent victories were real, causing her to have a crisis of confidence at the worst possible time.

!!Examples:

** In "Major Competition", the girls seemingly find themselves bested by a new superhero named Major Man who always shows up in the nick of time whenever trouble is occurring. They start spying on him to figure out how he always shows up so fast, and see him doing things like bribe some thugs to rob a bank and kicking a dog into traffic so he can stop the cars and save it. They expose him by [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame doing some engineering themselves]], having a monster attack the city and showing Major Man to be completely helpless when faced with a threat he can't control.

** In "Major Competition", a FakeUltimateHero-type metahuman named Major Man sets up some crimes and disasters for himself to stop so that Townsville would make him their new superhero. The Girls eventually discover his ruse and [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame set up their own engineering, with a monster that Major Man can't handle on his own.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' Season 3, it's revealed that [[spoiler:some of the heroic missions of the Outsiders were deliberately engineered to make them and by extension other heroes look good. Which was done to counter the Villains manipulating the media to make the heroes look bad]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'':
** The villain Volpina uses her [[MasterOfIllusion illusion powers]] to stage herself stopping a [[ColonyDrop falling meteor]] in order to gain Ladybug and Cat Noir's trust so that she can manipulate them.
** Shortly after finding the Bee Miraculous, and attempting to impress her mother, Chloe/Queen Bee paralyzes the driver of a subway train so that she can then save it. This backfires: she can't stop the train on her own, and after Ladybug and Cat Noir stop it for real, Ladybug discovers how the train lost control in the first place.

=** PlayedForDrama in the series finale, [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E24TheEndingOfTheEndPart1 "The Ending of the End"]], when Discord reveals that he deliberately brought back a number of villains and planned to have them attack Twilight's coronation, with their defeat resulting in her confidence being boosted. However, this ends up backfiring horribly, as not only did Discord have his magic stolen from him by said villains (meaning he can't act as her safety net), but Twilight begins doubting whether ''any'' of her recent victories were real, causing her to have a crisis of confidence at the worst possible time.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' pilot, Stan stages a purse-snatching at the mall so that his son can save the day and be more attractive to the ladies. He unfortunately goes overboard, completely forgetting to let Steve catch him.

** In the episode "When Aliens Attack", Fry and Leela are on the beach when a muscular, handsome man flirts with Leela. He explains to Fry that he's a ''professional'' beach bully who steals the girlfriend of some weak guy, then [[ThrowingTheFight goes down in one punch]] to make the weak guy look good in front of his girl, for a price. Fry says that Leela isn't his girlfriend so the bully is free to date her if he wants, but he says [[SorryImGay he's actually gay]] and walks away.

* ''WesternAnimation/KidCosmic'': After seeing how his grandson is depressed because he can't score any victories against the alien invaders, Papa G uses his cloning abilities to orchestrate a fake robot attack so Kid can win a medal and feel good about himself. This ends up giving Kid a big head. Unfortunately, Kid finds out in the next episode about Papa G's lie and takes the revelation poorly.

** In [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E10SpikeAtYourService "Spike at Your Service"]], Spike insists [[IOweYouMyLife he owes Applejack a life-debt]], [[UnwantedAssistance but AJ doesn't want his help.]] She and the rest of the ponies set up a fake Timberwolf attack so Spike can "save" AJ and free himself from his debt. Spike immediately sees through the deception--then a ''real'' Timberwolf attacks, and Spike actually does save AJ.
** PlayedForDrama in the series finale, [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E24TheEndingOfTheEndPart1 "The Ending of the End"]], when Discord reveals that he deliberately brought back a number of villains and planned to have them attack Twilight's coronation, with their defeat resulting in her confidence being boosted. However, this ends up backfiring horribly, as not only did Discord have his magic stolen from him by said villains (meaning he can't act as her safety net), but Twilight begins doubting whether ''any'' of her recent victories were real, causing her to have a crisis of confidence at the worst possible time.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** Sandy has Patrick dress as a gorilla and pretend to attack her in a ploy to get [=SpongeBob=] out of his house. [=SpongeBob=] sees through the ruse, but then a real gorilla appears (in a clever subversion of MistakenForAnImposter, the gorilla comes dressed as Patrick, while the real Patrick has on the gorilla costume), and [=SpongeBob=] has to come save them.
** In another episode, the "weenie" [=SpongeBob=], wanting to get into the [[BadGuyBar Salty Spitoon]], stages a fight with Patrick in front of the bouncer. Patrick somehow manages to telekinetically ''beat up himself''. The bouncer is duly impressed.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' episode "A Mathematically Perfect Redemption", it's revealed that [[spoiler:Peanut Hamper, an Exocomp who went AWOL, contacts both the Drookmani and Starfleet to the planet Areolus with the idea of luring the former for the planet's ancient spaceships so she can swoop in and defeat them as Starfleet gets there, showing that she was a hero and to welcome her back to the organization. However, the plan goes awry when it turns out the Drookmani she attacked hijacks one of the ships, which is ''still functioning'', and reveals her duplicity. Even when given the chance to prove her worth again, Peanut Hamper [[DirtyCoward to bail on everyone]].]]

** In the [[Anime/PowerPuffGirlsZ anime version]], Princess Morbucks' older sister does this: setting up everything in the episode she is in, even employing the services of Mojo, along with film editing, to make it look like she saved the day as well as bested the Power Puff Girls. One of the rare cases where she actually gets away with it.* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower'': In "A Lesson In Love", Shadow Weaver summons a GiantSpider to attack Flutterina and her mind-controlled minion Kevin saves her from it, causing Flutterina to trust him and lead him to the Rebellion. Kevin eventually shakes off the mind control and becomes a hero for real.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "When Aliens Attack", Fry and Leela are on the beach when a muscular, handsome man flirts with Leela. He explains to Fry that he's a ''professional'' beach bully who steals the girlfriend of some weak guy, then [[ThrowingTheFight goes down in one punch]] to make the weak guy look good in front of his girl, for a price. Fry says that Leela isn't his girlfriend so the bully is free to date her if he wants, but he says [[SorryImGay he's actually gay]] and walks away.

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower'': In "A Lesson In Love", Shadow Weaver summons a GiantSpider to attack Flutterina and her mind-controlled minion Kevin saves her from it, causing Flutterina to trust him and lead him to the Rebellion. Kevin eventually shakes off the mind control and becomes a hero for real.