I've Been Expecting You

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Batman plays the Anticipator on many occasions. One such story has Batman entering an apparently unoccupied room. After standing there a beat, he says "you four men may come out now". Cue four ninja assassins. In Batman: The Animated Series: In one episode, two mooks are sent to look for Batman in a house. Batman is waiting for the two mooks to enter the bedroom he is hiding in. When one of them looks inside, Batman gives him a daring look. The other mook asks if anyone is inside the room. The mook says there's no one there. In one episode of Kaeloo, Stumpy is turned into a genius who is smart enough to predict the future. When Olaf suddenly shows up and scares everyone, Stumpy is unfazed, and reveals that he knew Olaf would be coming. The problem with it is that, at the end, James Bond dies. I really hope that everyone still reading either already knew that or doesn’t give a shit about James Bond, though I warn the latter group: I’m not going to get on to anything important like economics or gardening. This whole Bond death thing is buzzing around my head like a miniaturised Sean Connery on Little Nellie.

been expecting you, Mr Bond - The Guardian We’ve been expecting you, Mr Bond - The Guardian

Master Shifu from Kung Fu Panda likely knew that the Furious Five would try to ambush him that day, but he couldn't know where or how. Nonetheless, Master Shifu easily thwarts all five forays against him, giving critique on their technique as he does so. James Bond is famous for the "I've been expecting you" lines in many of the movies. As stated in multiple real-life interviews, this one-liner has become one of the main reasons that the real life MI6 would consider James Bond to be a terrible spy, because "no matter where he goes, he's expected". We simply didn't know when to expect you. First it was teatime yesterday, and then dinner, and it was only half an hour ago that we really knew you were on your way." John Rain: In The Killer Ascendant, Professional Killer Rain is hunting rogue CIA agent Jim Hilger. Knowing that Hilger is planning to murder a Dutch official when they return home after work, Rain decides Hilger will be staking out his victim from a park across the road. Then Rain wonders if Hilger has anticipated his arrival, and is actually waiting in ambush for Rain. So he enters the park from a different direction, and sure enough sees a man with a gun lying in wait. It's then that Hilger springs his trap — the man lying on the ground is an innocent bystander that Hilger murdered and left there as a Sleeping Dummy, so he can ambush Rain in turn.

Although it seems as if the Anticipator is Crazy-Prepared, usually they are simply cool, wise, or are very seasoned. They expect you to be sneaking through the window, hiding behind that pillar, creeping in the shadows, and even using that Invisibility Cloak of Invisible Fabric... and don't even think about opening a door to stakeout in a room to surprise them later: they'll already be waiting for you there. This is a Super-Trope of the following tropes. Only add examples here that don't fit in one of these categories:

The Anticipator - TV Tropes The Anticipator - TV Tropes

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Glory, the Big Bad of Season 5, does this all the time as she's a Physical God. Infinity Crisis: When Ray, Scott and Hope shrink down and enter the Soul Gem, they are met by Doctor Strange, who notes that he expected someone to get there a day earlier.Almost two years after its original release date, the 25th James Bond film – and final outing for star Daniel Craig – has had its first screening at the Royal Albert Hall Master Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles usually plays this role in all incarnations of the show, as he is very wise and skilled. And a ninja, of course. Trespassing to Talk: A character breaks into another's home and waits to confront them when they arrive. In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug this trope is subverted. Bilbo uses the ring to disappear and he stumbles onto the chambers of Legolas's father, Thranduil. Thranduil subverts this trope, asking why he is hiding in the shadows, and stating that he can come out now. However, Bilbo finds out that Thranduil is not speaking to him after all, but to Tauriel who had also been lingering in the shadows.