History Main / AllAccordingToPlan

** That being said, pretty much every battle in Bleach will have multiple of these moments. Pretty much the entire of the Aizen and Thousand Year Blood War arc involve characters telling each other that they had planned for their opponent to plan for their plan that had planned for their plan that had been planned ahead of time to counter their opponents plan.... Before their opponent says "But I planned for you to do that..." %%[[spoiler: At one point, Yhwach blatently states that he planned for his entire army to be defeated and all of his men destroyed, as well as almost getting wiped out of existance, only surviving because of some ass-pull ability.]] To make a long story short, Bleach villains don't understand the idea of "Just because it's going to plan, doesn't mean it's a good plan."

* Zeo from Manga/OnePiece both subverts this and takes it to ridiculous extremes, claiming that absolutely ''everything'' goes according to his plans. Even the bad stuff. ''[[ButtMonkey Especially]]'' [[ButtMonkey the bad stuff.]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Anime/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime''. After [[TheAce Rimuru Tempest]] suffer's Ifrit's fire spell, he laments his short life (or rather, slife) and his mistakes in the battle...before noticing that he's not actually taking any damage. His [[BenevolentAI Great Sage]] ability then informs him that this is thanks to his Thermal Fluctuation Resistance ability, which nullifies all temperature-based attacks. Upon realizing this, Rimuru's attitude shifts, and he take the opportunity to gloat that this is, in fact, "keikaku doori," or all according to plan. Great Sage isn't fooled in the slightest, but lets him have this moment.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Anime/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime''. After [[TheAce Rimuru Tempest]] suffer's Ifrit's fire spell, he laments his short life (or rather, slife) and his mistakes in the battle...before noticing that he's not actually taking any damage. His Great Sage ability then informs him that this is thanks to his Thermal Fluctuation Resistance ability, which nullifies all temperature-based attacks. Upon realizing this, Rimuru's attitude shifts, and he take the opportunity to gloat that this is, in fact, "keikaku doori," or all according to plan.

** Previously, [[spoiler:Doc Scratch]] managed to pull a version of this on ''the entire cast'', with the event that went as planned being [[spoiler:'''the entirety of Acts 1 through 5'''. It's only after his own death that the full machinations of Doc Scratch are finally revealed; in fact, [[MyDeathIsOnlyTheBeginning it's Doc Scratch's death that allows his master,]] [[EldritchAbomination Lord]] [[BigBad English]], to finally make his appearance.]] It's his [[FamousLastWords final line]] that really sells it:

* ''Fanfic/AncientSins'': Dante is ''CrazyPrepared'' for any outcome, but despite the means of achieving his goals changing, the goal itself is fufilled in the end. He even states later that everything the heroes did was already thought out by him.

* In {{WebAnimation/Underverse}}, [=XGaster=] claims that whatever happens to him, be it the destruction of his world or the rebellion of the people he considered pawns to fit into his larger goal.

* In{{WebAnimation/Underverse}}, [=XGaster=] claims that whatever happens to him, be it the destruction of his world or the rebellion of the people he considered pawns to fit into his larger goal.

* {{WebAnimation/Underverse}} {=XGaster=} claims that whatever happens to him, be it the destruction of his world or the rebellion of the people he considered pawns to fit into his larger goal.

* The ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'' episode "Corporate Pigfall", when the Eager Young Space Cadet becomes the head of a powerful corporation, Dodgers decides to bring him back, and drags the new cadet (Egghead Jr from Foghorn Leghorn cartoons) into it, despite deriding all Egghead Jr.'s carefully-drawn plans. In the end, Egghead Jr. is given the Cadet's position with the company, enabling him to return to the Galactic Protectorate, and the final scene is him writing on his drawing board "Exactly as I planned".

* Parodied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/Rugrats'' where Angelica, imitating a villain on TV, says "Everything is going [[DelusionsofEloquence accordion]] to plan''

* Subverted in the FinalBattle of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency''. Just when it looks like TheBadGuyWins, [[TheHero Joseph Joestar]] manages to turn everything around: he uses the [[PlotDevice Red Stone of Aja]] to intercept and amplify [[BigBad Kars]]' deathblow, causing the volcano they're on to erupt and launching them skyward on a giant slab of rock. Kars attempts to escape, only to get hit by [[AnArmAndALeg Joseph's severed left arm]] (also launched by the blast after Kars cut it off), which distracts him long enough for rocks launched from the landmass at high speeds to strike him and propel him into space. Before he leaves the atmosphere, Kars angrily demands to know if Joseph planned all of this out; Joseph says "Of course, you dolt!" but thinks to himself [[{{Troll}} "Actually I didn't, but thinking that I did will drive him crazy!"]]

* Subverted in the FinalBattle of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency''. Just when it looks like TheBadGuyWins, [[TheHero Joseph Joestar]] manages to turn everything around: he uses the [[PlotDevice Red Stone of Aja]] to intercept and amplify [[BigBad Kars]]' deathblow, causing the volcano they're on to erupt and launching them skyward on a giant slab of rock. Kars attempts to escape, only to get hit by [[AnArmAndALeg Joseph's severed left arm]] (also launched by the blast after Kars cut it off), which distracts him long enough for rocks launched from the landmass at high speeds to strike him and propel him into space. Before he leaves the atmosphere, Kars angrily demands to know if Joseph planned all of this out; Joseph says "Of course, you dolt!" but thinks to himself "Actually I didn't, but thinking that I did will drive him crazy!"

* Implied in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', although it's the heroes doing it. [[spoiler:The film ends with Thanos killing half the universe, but Dr Strange indicates that this was the only outcome where the Avengers could ultimately beat Thanos...prior to his own disintegration, that is.]] This gets its payoff in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', where it turns out [[spoiler:Strange gave up the Time Stone to set up the scenario in this film where Tony can steal the Infinity Stones from Thanos and perform a HeroicSacrifice that saves the universe.]]

* In ''FanFic/SilentPartnerUnfinishedBusiness'', Light Yagami is compelled by his own Death Note to [[CruelAndUnusualDeath drown himself in a filthy toilet]]. He figured he only had a 60% chance of being revived, but it completely dispels all suspicion from him, and a 60% chance to live is better than the certain death Rem's Note was about to give him.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/Foundation Series'':
** ''The Foundation Trilogy'': Despite having died decades to centuries ago, [[PosthumousCharacter Hari Seldon]] planned the events of each chapter. Appearing in the "[[DeadManWriting Time Vault]]", he announces the primary conflict of the story and reassures the people of Terminus that it will be resolved in their favour. His predictions become known as [[ThePlan the Seldon Plan]].

* The {{TabletopGame/Warhammer}} tie-in novel ''The Master of Death'' is a complete send-up of this trope. The VillainProtagonist W'soran spends the entire book manipulating the disparate human and undead residents of the region in a centuries-long plot to get him in a room to duel his more powerful rival and take the throne of Mourkain. Every seeming reversal is revealed to have been accounted for in his labyrinthine master plan. After everything falls into place perfectly he fights his way through the unwinnable battle for the capital to seize the crown for himself and win in one final stroke... and then he realizes he never actually thought of a way to do that. Despite what he had constantly assured his followers, himself, and the reader he never ''really'' had a plan.

[[folder: Comic Books]]

* In ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', Ursula the sea witch, transformed into the human woman "Vanessa," sings "''What a lovely little bride I'll make / My dear, I'll look divine / Everything is working out according to my ultimate design.''" This, however, is actually something of a subversion in that Ursula is experiencing a SanitySlippage because her original plan ''isn't'' working out. She had thought that she could just take Ariel's voice and this would be enough to keep her from ever getting Prince Eric to give her the [[TrueLovesKiss kiss of true love]]. After a near-miss only just stopped by her eel henchmen, she hastily concocted this plan to put Prince Eric under her spell and marry him herself.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' has Sousuke Aizen. When things go not quite as planned, he still has a backup plan. Sometimes he doesn't but being the MagnificentBastard he is he'll make you think he did '''and then''' it goes all according to plan because you gave him time to make it so.

* ''ComicBook/TheUltimates''
** Iron Man claims that he saw the events of Ultimates 2 coming (except the "Natasha betraying him" part) and figures it all worked out pretty well for him.
** Hulk is trying to crack open the tank of Captain America? Excellent. Everything is going according to plan.

** Played straight with the heroine in "The Freshman". Buffy is spying on a nest of vampires when she falls through the skylight into their midst.

* On the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "Jaynestown", the contact Mal meets up with is upset the townspeople have embraced Jayne as a hero. Mal assures the contact that it's all according to their new plan.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': During a conversation at the beginning of ''Genesis of the Daleks'', a Time Lord smugly tells the Doctor that he is a "special case" in Time Lord history, that they "allow" him his freedom to roam about the universe doing whatever he feels like. Never mind that he ran away in a stolen TARDIS before anyone could stop him. Not to mention the Master, or the Rani, or the Meddling Monk. It turns out he's referring to what the Doctor is allowed to do after he was caught and served his penance on [[InsignificantBluePlanet Earth]].