4D Chess

A term most often used to mock people who try to present their incompetence as a part of a greater strategy or mind game (which may exist, but usually does not). A less ironic sense of the word is often used to refer to fictional storylines where characters come to power through intrigue, manipulation, and/or gaslighting, often mocking them if this plot device is used in a very over-the-top, unrealistic way. The rise of Palpatine is one of the most prominent examples, since manufacturing a civil war along with decades of political tension through several secret identities, four generations of brainwashed agents, and a mentally stunted alien senator is far from realism