History Main / ExactWords

When the exact wording of a rule, promise, prophecy etc. matters more than the spirit of the wording, it's an ExactWords situation.

For magical enforcement of ExactWords, see LiteralGenie. Often the cause of ProphecyTwist. LiteralMinded characters just do it because that's how they think.

The ExactWords are also the difference between a riddle and a mere common question.

* In DanceInTheVampireBund, a Mina imposter has taken control of the Bund, and even after the inhabitants of the island have figured it out, the blood pact still forces them to obey her. When Akira figures it out and goes off to rescue the real Mina, the fake orders them to find and capture Akira. They capture Akira, but not the MAIN Akira, instead they bring her a resident vampire named Akira. CMOA anyone?

* During one of the filler arcs in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', Captain Byakuya is ordered to rein in Ichigo who's running off gung-ho trying to solve the problem in a manner that clashes with Soul Society policy. However, since he doesn't agree with said policy himself, he chooses to interpret his orders with ExactWords:

* In ''Manga/{{Kaiji}}'', after exposing Ohtsuki's [[spoiler:4-5-6 dice]], Ohtsuki tries to desperately grasp a way to not lose and says that since his last roll was interrupted by TheReveal, the dice didn't count, so he ''technically'' wasn't cheating. Kaiji offers him that last roll as a 4, saying that each of his cohorts will also roll [[ExactWords trick dice.]] Ohtsuki accepts, thinking at most he'll only lose 1 million. [[spoiler:Using a t-bone, Kaiji made a set of dice covered in ones. Meaning every roll will be snake eyes, resulting in a 5x payout to the roller.]] Ohtsuki is in no position to retort against this.

* The Franchise/MarvelUniverse's {{Thanos}} of Titan is notorious for resorting to this trope when carrying out his end of a bargain, as a way of "honoring" his word while essentially screwing over other characters. To his credit, Thanos mostly dupes villains (or other similarly shady characters), and as much as possible, honestly keeps his word when he gives it. One notable incident occurred when Thanos promised Mephisto a [[ArtifactOfDoom Cosmic Cube]] in return for his assistance. [[http://www.corvusonline.net/thanos/thanos5_2.jpg Upon Thanos delivering the Cube to Mephisto]]:

* In an episode of ''TheFabulousFurryFreakBrothers'' published in the 1970s (before cash machines), Phineas Freak was accosted by two muggers who demanded: "Give us all your money!". Interpreting their words literally, Phineas thought of all the effort that would be required in doing this — he and the muggers would have to wait outside the bank all weekend until it opened on Monday morning, so that Phineas could withdraw his savings and give this money to the muggers, among other things — and decided he just couldn't do it. The muggers thought Phineas was stoned (which he was), and they left him alone.

** [[http://www.garfield.com/comics/vault.html?yr=1995&addr=950503 Jon told Garfield not to take the lid off a cookie jar.]] {{Garfield}} then turned the jar upside down and "took the jar off the lid".

* In an ''Comicbook/IronMan'' storyline, Dr Octopus holds the city hostage with a nuclear bomb, just to force Tony to say he's not as smart. At the end he reveals that it's nuclear, but isn't really a bomb, and points out he always called it a "device". [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when a perplexed Tony says that isn't true, and Ock replies, "Who cares? ILied."

* {{Lampshaded}} in ''Fanfic/IWontSay'': "No morning sex... *''({{Beat}})''* or afternoon sex, or evening sex or..."

** Technically neither of them were following this trope, as they both broke the ExactWords of the rules. A purple dragon is, in fact, a "make-believe thing" and is also almost exactly "like a pink dragon". A germ is not an animal. It is either a bacteria, a virus, or in some cases a fungus. The rules very clearly stated that there could be "only animals" and that there could be no things that are "like pink dragons". To be fair to Merlin, though, the story is set ''before'' Linnaeus set up his taxonomy system. Even then, though, if he was going for the virus look, it would've been violation of the rules, as there isn't a virus kingdom... ''if'' he was going for the virus look.

* In ''DougsFirstMovie'', Roger Klotz has the twins build Robo-Crusher to deal with the monster of Lake Bluffington that's been revealed that was supposed to be giant (using a diagram that shows himself as the scale of the size). They then build Robo-Crusher, only for it to be shown to be extremely smaller than intended (It was about Roger's height at best). When Roger points out that it's supposed to be much larger, the Twins agree... and then shrink Roger down to the size indicated on the graph, with Roger then commenting that this wasn't funny and demanding to be changed back.

* In ''Film/WreckItRalph'', King Candy goes to confront Ralph over Vanellope. When Ralph confronts him, ready to punch his face in, Candy tries to stop him by pulling out a pair of glasses, slipping them on and asking him "YouWouldntHitAGuyWithGlasses, would ya?" Ralph pulls the glasses off and hits him with it.

* The Soothsayer in KungFuPanda2 has a habit of telling her fortunes in this manner.

* In the first ''[[Film/SpiderManTrilogy Spider-Man]]'', Peter enters a cage wrestling match promising $3000 to anyone who can last 3 minutes against the champ. After Peter wins with his spider powers, the ref refuses to pay the full amount on the grounds that he won and left the cage in less than three minutes. Peter is understandably pissed.

* All the riddles played by Bilbo and Gollum in ''Film/TheHobbit'' rely on ExactWords of their formation. The last riddle was taken a bit further. Gollum was growing impatient that Bilbo was taking so long trying to think of a riddle and demands Bilbo quickly ask him a question. While thinking, Bilbo feels the ring he had earlier found and muses to himself "What have I got in my pocket?". Gollum mistook it as a riddle and complains before Bilbo, using Gollum's earlier words, retorts that he ''is'' asking a question and decided to use that as his riddle.

* In ''42'', Branch Rickey gets Burt Shotton to manage the Dodgers by way of this trope. Shotton informs Rickey that after he retired, he promised his wife to never put on a uniform again. Rickey says that he never said that he wouldn't ''manage'', and that he can still manage without wearing a uniform. The next scene shows Shotton, in a suit, introducing himself as the new Brooklyn manager.
* In ''TheGodfather'', Vito Corleone tells his fellow {{Mafia}} Dons the following: "But that aside, let me say that I swear, on the souls of my grandchildren, that ''I'' will not be the one to break the peace we have made here today." His youngest son, and eventual successor, Michael has pretty much all of them killed in the film's climax, before pulling off this trope himself when his wife, Kay, asks him about said killings in the final scene.
* In ''Film/{{Oblivion2013}}'' [[spoiler:During his trip to Tet's core, Jack is stopped by a pair of drones, Sally having deduced that he has misled her about the nature of his return. Jack then replies quite honestly that he's returned because it's the only way humanity would survive. He just doesn't give her the specifics.]]
* In Film/IronMan2, when Vanko tells Hammer that the drones at the show won't be fully capable, he adds that they will be able to "make salute." [[BilingualBonus But in Russian]], ''salyut'' means ''fireworks.'' The Stark Expo turns into one hell of a fireworks show.

* LewisCarroll ''loved'' this Trope, although it's usually done for laughs in his works. Here's one example from ''Literature/ThroughTheLookingGlass'':

* In Christopher Paolini's ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' saga, magic is mostly performed by weaving the spell in the Elven tongue, and the spell's effect is precisely that of the "order" given by the caster. [[spoiler:Eragon soon learns the hard way that making a spell without safety measures will make it take its effect even if it requires enough energy to kill the caster.]] His bad grammar once led to him [[BlessedWithSuck blessing a character with suck]].

* In one ''FatherBrown'' story, he says they have to get a certain man. Everyone takes it to mean that he's the murderer, until after his capture, when Father Brown protests that they need him as a ''witness''.

* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''[[JohnCarterOfMars The Master Mind of Mars]]'', Ulysses Paxton has promised to return the two GrandTheftMe perpetrators to their own city. With some judicious maneuvering, he manages to strip them of all power there.

** ExactWords also come into play in Verin's CrowningMomentOfAwesome. [[spoiler:Verin swore an oath to the Dark One, not to betray him until her final hour. So she takes poison and spends her final hour debriefing Egwene on everything the Black Ajah has been up to.]]
** The whole series is filled with those from Aes Sedai. After all, they're masters at HalfTruth.

** And finally, a subversion. Maesters, black brothers, and the Kingsguard are not allowed to have sex at all. However, their vows only state that they can't take a wife, which means a visit to the local whorehouse is technically all right by ExactWords standards, as long as they don't conceive (another caveat of their vows). But no one ever feels compelled to point out this distinction and it's considered oathbreaking anyway. Despite this, the distinction is observed by practically everyone, including heroic characters, all of whom have technically broken their vow of chastity by the end of the fourth book.

* In IainBanks' ''Use of Weapons'' the protagonist attacks a city that prides itself on its library. They agree to surrender providing he doesn't "destroy one bit of data". On taking the city, he orders his men to take the databanks -- and rearrange them into alphabetical order. He similarly reorders all pictures by colour scale.

* In Creator/FrankHerbert's ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' series, the Bene Gesserit are stated to be incapable of outright lying, by virtue of their use of the Water of Life to expand their consciousness. Because of that, they've become masters of misdirection through clever word use, especially ExactWords, and "encouraging" others to draw the wrong conclusions.

* L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[ProsperosDaughter Prospero Lost]]'' has an unusual use: Ferdinard, believing that Miranda never married because of [[ThePromise her vow]] to marry him or die a maid, and that she does not want to marry him, offers to go through the ceremony with her and then have the marriage dissolved for non-consummation. Then she would be free to marry as she choose, having technically married him.

* In TanyaHuff's first story about the thief Terizan, the Thieves' Guild asks her, as an initiation test, to bring them the braid of the mercenary Swan. Terizan is enamored of Swan and doesn't especially want to do this, and wants to do it even less after she and Swan team up to take down a treacherous councilman, but she does very badly want to join the Guild. So she TakesAThirdOption and has Swan accompany her to the guildmasters, braid still attached.

** Officers Davis and Karen (the entire police force) decide to [[ExactWords work to rule]]. Partly subverted because [[MildlyMilitary they don't bother with the rules most of the time anyway]] (and Davis, the senior officer, had never even ''seen'' the rulebook and thought it much thinner) while the mayor is happy letting them dig their own grave with the townsfolk, so the entire episode ends up with Karen and Davis trying to get out of it.

** In season 6 Spike, sick of his tortured relationship with Buffy and his wretched existence in general, approaches some powerful demon and implores to be changed to "his original state". He meant that the demon would remove the chip from his head that prevented him from harming humans. Demon, being, naturally, a dick, instead returned his soul to him.

* In a {{Castle}} episode, Beckett is standing on a pressure plate-triggered bomb that's going to explode in minutes if not disarmed. The bomb team makes Castle leave, which he promises to do. In a rather poignant scene, Beckett stands there alone, about to die, thinking about Castle... who then comes back: "Yeah, I promised I'd leave... I didn't promise I wouldn't come ''back''..."

* Wrestling/JeffJarrett came out on one episode of {{TNA}} iMPACT to the usual cries of [[XPacHeat "DROP THE TITLE!" (clap clap clapclapclap)]]. In the middle of a promo he decided to make fun of them by taking his NWA World Heavyweight Championship and [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments dropping it on the mat]].

* In the RoyalRumble, the only way to be eliminated, is to be thrown over the top rope and ''both'' feet must touch the floor. This has been taken advantage of, as some guys roll under the bottom rope and wait until later to come back in. Some guys have utilized other techniques.

* A very early example of this is ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'' by Creator/WilliamShakespeare: Antonio suddenly finds himself unable to repay his debt to Shylock, the loan shark, and his contract said Shylock would cut a pound of flesh from his body if Antonio doesn't pay him back; in the court, however, Antonio's lawyer pulls an ExactWords objection, and the judge finally declares that Shylock had to cut a pound of flesh from Antonio without [[AssPull spilling any blood]]; since doing this is physically impossible, the contract was declared null and void.

* In ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'', the demon lord Odin asks the shadow knight Oswald to slay the dragon Wagner in exchange for [[spoiler:a castle, a magic spear and the hand of Odin's daughter Gwendolyn]]. After Oswald slays Wagner, Odin demands Oswald give him the magic ring found in the dragon's belly, but Oswald, already planning to give the ring to his new wife as a wedding gift, refuses and points out that [[ExactWords Odin only asked him to kill the dragon.]] When Odin insists, Oswald threatens to kill him and demands his reward, forcing Odin to back down. To be honest though, Odin really did bring this one on himself -- Oswald ''asked'' him why he wanted Wagner killed and Odin refused to tell him. [[WhatAnIdiot If he'd just asked Oswald to bring him the ring, Oswald would have done so freely.]]\\\

* Calypso from ''TwistedMetal'' takes this and LiteralGenie to the extreme.

* In ''DarkSouls'', Kingseeker Frampt tells the chosen undead that by linking the fire, he or she will succeed Gwyn, the lord of Anor Londo. [[spoiler:What he does not tell the player is that Gwyn has been burning alive for centuries. By succeeding him, the undead will face the same fate.]]

* Noel told Ragna at the beginning of [[BlazBlueContinuumShift Blazblue Continnum Shift]] that the next time they meet they will be enemies. In their next meeting, Noel [[spoiler: has transformed to Mu-12 and ready to kick Ragna's ass]].
* In ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublicII'', the Exile makes a promise to Atris that they won't train the Handmaiden in "the ways of the Jedi", something that the Handmaiden's own vows prevent her from pursuing. The Exile later capitulates to the Handmaiden's request for training, pointing out that Atris never said they couldn't learn the ways of ''[[LoopholeAbuse the Force]]'', thus neither of them can be said to have broken their word.

** Roy had once asked an oracle where Xykon currently was, and had received the ExactWords answer "on his throne". When he later returns to the same oracle, he [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0331.html deliberately forms his question to be as immune to twisting as possible]]. Ironically, however, this makes him receive a ''worse'' answer, because his phrasing of the question had limited Xykon's next attack to one of two possible locations, and Xykon had chosen to TakeAThirdOption. The Oracle tried to get Roy to word his question in a way that would allow him to give the proper answer, but Roy was having none of it. The very next strip has Elan [[TheDitz of all people]] pointing out Roy's error... but moments later the party triggers the [[LaserGuidedAmnesia Memory Charm]] around the Oracle's tower so that the only thing they remember from the visit with the Oracle was the answers he gave to their specific questions. Thus eliminating the advance warning they would've otherwise had of Xykon's imminent attack.

* ''BastardOperatorFromHell''. If you ask the BOFH for more disk space, he'll give it to you -- by deleting all your files. And that's nothing compared to what he does with his contract. It got "[[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/14/bofh_2006_episode_23/ numerous strange clauses]]", including one about UFO sighting in the vicinity of the building... which he successfully used... more than once.

* The direct-to-DVD ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAsRapunzel'' has a literal case of ExactWords in play: incensed evil lady puts spell on tower to permanently lock up Rapunzel for not giving her name of guy she's been seeing, spell specifically says "Never release your prisoner with a lying heart"; however, Rapunzel genuinely didn't know (the last time she saw him, she specifically tells him that she doesn't want to know) and thus wasn't lying, and after escaping, Rapunzel uses painting she's made earlier to put evil lady into tower instead, replete with literal IronicEcho when she realizes she's just been [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Hoist by Her Own Petard]].

** Another example is when Lobo appears in the episode "Hereafter" and is gunning to replace the recently-deceased Superman. When the two parted ways in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', Superman made Lobo swear "to leave me, and everyone else on Earth, in peace". Nobody said anything about leaving ''just'' the Earth in peace, so with Superman out of the equation... [[spoiler:notably, when Superman turns out to be not dead and returns in the end, Lobo's promise kicks in again and he leaves without a fuss. By his standards.]]

* Comes up a couple of times near the finale of ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' The heroes [[EnemyMine team up]] with the previous seasons BigBad, Phobos, to take down [[EvilSorcerer Nerissa]]. They make him swear on the Heart of Kandrakar that after Nerissa is defeated, he will not use her power for himself. He then backstabs the heroes and tries to take over Kandrakar anyway, which is [[BatmanGambit exactly what the heroes had counted on]]. Due to the nature of his vow, if he had even set foot in Kandrakar with hostile intent he would have forfeited all of his stolen power. It would have worked too, if his [[TheDragon dragon]] Cedric hadn't used his own ExactWords to steal his power before he could break the vow.

* ''WoodyWoodpecker'' once told [[{{Nephewism}} his nephew and his niece]] about some of their ancestors. One of them worked on railroads and was told "When I nod my head, you hit it".

** In "Bugs and Thugs", gangster Rocky gives his lackey Mugsy a gun and tells him to take BugsBunny into the other room and "let him have it". Once in the room, Bugs asks for the gun because, as the boss said, Mugsy was suppose to let him have it. Mugsy gives Bugs the gun, and you can probably guess the rest.

* In an episode of ''LiloAndStitchTheSeries'', Lilo says she can beat Myrtle at "any time, any place, any game" when it comes to baseball. Later, when Myrtle challenges her to a game of basketball instead, she quotes the "any game" part.
* Meta example: ''GrandmaGotRunOverByAReindeer.'' Hey, the original song never ''explicitly'' [[SparedByTheAdaptation says she dies]], so maybe she turns out to be NotQuiteDead with EasyAmnesia instead?

* President Ryti of Finland did this during WorldWarII. He gave his word to Hitler that neither ''he'' nor ''Finland under his rule'' would ever make peace with the Soviet Union. When the time was ripe, Ryti retired and the next president pulled out of the war.

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* ''FanFic/TurnaboutStorm'': [[VisualNovel/AceAttorney Phoenix Wright]] winds up summoned to Equestria. According to Twilight, she was trying to summon the best defense attorney in Equestria, [[MagicMisfire but she accidentally forgot that last part]], thus summoning the best defense attorney ''period''. [[spoiler:This turns out to be a lie. She summoned him directly under the advice of Princess Celestia]].

** After his HeelFaceTurn, Byakuya becomes well-versed on this trope. Other examples are his bringing Renji and Rukia back to Soul Society as per orders of [[BigGood Yamamoto's]] (after [[TheChick Orihime]] is kidnapped, and Yamamoto forbade the Shinigami of rescuing her), then subsequently letting them go free, stating more or less the same thing as in the example above... and his defection to [[BigBad Muramasa's]] side in another {{Filler}} arc; when he is asked why he is joining Muramasa, Byakuya states that it's for the sake of his pride. It sounds like an obvious lie, until we find out what ends he's trying to achieve: he knows Muramasa is trying to free his master Kouga Kuchiki, and [[PillarsOfMoralCharacter wants to have an opportunity to kill him and clean the name of the Kuchiki Clan]]... so it really is for the sake of his pride, he just didn't tell exactly ''how'' joining Muramasa would defend his pride.

** After his HeelFaceTurn, Byakuya becomes well-versed on this trope. Other examples are his bringing Renji and Rukia back to Soul Society as per orders of [[BigGood Yamamoto's]] (after [[TheChick Orihime]] is kidnapped, and Yamamoto forbade the Shinigami of rescuing her), then subsequently letting them go free, stating more or less the same thing as in the example above... and his defection to [[BigBad Muramasa's]] side in another {{Filler}} arc; when he is asked why he is joining Muramasa, Byakuya states that it's for the sake of his pride. It sounds like an obvious lie, until we find out what ends he's trying to achieve: he knows Muramasa is trying to free his master Kouga Kuchiki, and wants to have an opportunity to kill him and clean the name of the Kuchiki Clan... so it really is for the sake of his pride, he just didn't say how joining Muramasa would defend his pride.

** After his HeelFaceTurn, Byakuya becomes well-versed on this trope. Other examples are his bringing Renji and Rukia back to Soul Society as per orders of [[BigGood Yamamoto's]] (after [[TheChick Orihime]] is kidnapped, and Yamamoto forbade anyone to go rescue her), then subsequently letting them go free, stating more or less the same thing as in the example above... and his defection to [[BigBad Muramasa's]] side in another {{Filler}} arc; when he is asked why he is joining Muramasa, Byakuya states that it's for the sake of his pride. It sounds like an obvious lie, until we find out what ends he's trying to achieve: he knows Muramasa is trying to free his master Kouga Kuchiki, and wants to have an opportunity to kill him and clean the name of the Kuchiki Clan... so it really is for the sake of his pride, and he wasn't actually lying.

* In TheBible, {{God}} tells Abraham to bring his son Isaac up to the mountain and offer him as a HumanSacrifice. That, it turns out, is all God wants--Isaac ''offered'' as a sacrifice. Once it's clear that the two have enough faith to go through with the killing God sends an angel to stop it from actually taking place. (Abraham then spots a ram stuck in a nearby bush and sacrifices ''that'' to prove his seriousness--and possibly to get some mutton for his trouble. We don't know what happened to the ram, exactly.)

* ''Series/RedDwarf'' provides a rather lengthy example of this. A running joke in the series was Kryten's relentless spouting of Space Corps Directives directed at Rimmer, and when Rimmer finally asks, "Has anyone actually seen this manual?", Kryten asks Holly to give him a hologramatic copy. However, once the team returns from a mission sans Rimmer, they return to find that he's not only read the entire manual, but has picked and chosen a choice selection of [=SCDs=] to torment them.

* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', for a Saiyan to become a Super Saiyan their heart needs to be pure. Son Goku, the protagonist, is the first to achieve this as he has not a speck of evil in his heart. Some time later his greatest rival Vegeta, a villain, also becomes a Super Saiyan since his heart is [[PureIsNotGood pure evil]] (stated in the manga version only).

* From the [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000 Black Library]]:

* At the end of SandyMitchell's ''Cain's Last Stand'', Literature/CiaphasCain''' ''(HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!)'' '''calls Varan, the enemy leader, to propose a meeting to discuss terms of surrender. At the meeting itself, he declares it was to discuss the terms of ''Varan'''s surrender. (Then they fight.)
* In Lee Lightner's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' ''SpaceWolf'' novel ''Sons of Fenris'', after Ragnar promised the Dark Angel Jeremiah that Cadmus was his to deal with, and then promised Cadmus that his life was his if he gave information, everyone else says his oaths conflict, and Cadmus says that he promised to let him go free. Ragnar says that he promised that his life was his. It was, and he had best start defending it.
* In GrahamMcNeill's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' ''Literature/{{Ultramarines}}'' novel ''The Killing Ground'', Leodegarius tells Uriel that he will fight him and Pasanius and on the outcome, will determine their fate. When he has defeated them, he explains that victory would not have been [[SecretTestOfCharacter possible without the use of warp-based power;]] their defeat proves their innocence.

** In [[Film/HarryPotter the movie]] of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'', Snape reassures Narcissa and Bellatrix that "[O]ver the years I have played my part well. So well, I have deceived one of the greatest wizards of all time. Dumbledore is a great wizard; only a fool would doubt it." He never ''actually'' says that he's deceived Dumbledore. [[Spoiler: In fact, the great wizard he's selling down the river? Voldemort.]]

** In [[Film/HarryPotter the movie]] of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'', Snape reassures Narcissa and Bellatrix that "[O]ver the years I have played my part well. So well, I have deceived one of the greatest wizards of all time. Dumbledore is a great wizard; only a fool would doubt it." He never ''actually'' says that he's deceived Dumbledore.

** There's the Water 7/Ennies Lobby arc, where Robin [[spoiler:betrays the Strawhats because she knew they'd be exterminated by the [=CP9=] and the "Buster Call" that had been placed under their command if they tried to fight. She gave herself up and willingly went to be executed with the promise that "All Strawhats minus her would leave Water 7 alive". When they followed her to Ennies Lobby, Spandam gave the order to kill them all.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Lucci:''' Our deal was that "All Strawhats excepting you would leave Water 7 unscratched". And that's what happened.]]

* In ''Manga/DragonBall Z'', for a Saiyan to become a Super Saiyan their heart needs to be pure. Son Goku, the protagonist, is the first to achieve this as he has not a speck of evil in his heart. Some time later his greatest rival Vegeta, a villain, also becomes a Super Saiyan since his heart is [[PureIsNotGood pure evil]] (stated in the manga version only).

* ''WoodyWoodpecker'' once told [[Nephewism his nephew and his niece]] about some of their ancestors. One of them worked on railroads and was told "When I nod my head, you hit it".

[[quoteright:345:[[Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/medieval.png]]]]

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* In a Castle episode, Beckett is standing on a pressure plate-triggered bomb that's going to explode in minutes if not disarmed. The bomb team makes Castle leave, which he promises to do. In a rather poignant scene, Beckett stands there alone, about to die, thinking about Castle... who then comes back: "Yeah, I promised I'd leave... I didn't promise I wouldn't come ''back''..."

* In the background of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' the [[ChurchMilitant Ministorum]] was to have no "men under arms" in the aftermath of the Age of Apostasy. Knowing that a complete lack of a military force would make them unable to police themselves and subservient to the [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Administratum]], [[HighPriest Ecclesiarch]] [[SaintlyChurch Sebastian Thor]] installed his predecessor [[TheCaligula Goge Vandire's]] redeemed [[BodyguardBabes private army]] as the [[AmazonBrigade Sisters of Battle]].