History Main / NonviolentInitialConfrontation

* Common in [[OlderThanFeudalism ancient Greek theatre]], due to the actual violent confrontations occurring offstage, which created a need to show the tension between characters in another way. ''Theatre/{{Agamemnon}}'' features Clytemnestra and Agamemnon arguing about whether the latter should stand on a carpet to celebrate is victory (Clytemnestra succesfully convinces him), but keeps Clytemnestra's actual act of murdering Agamemnon offstage. Similarly, ''Theatre/{{Bacchae}}'' features Pentheus angrily confronting a disguised Dionysus verbally, and Dionysus ultimately convincing him to dress as a woman to spy on the Bacchae, luring Pentheus to his (offstage) violent death.

** ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'': the golf match between James Bond and Auric Goldfinger.
** ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'': the gambling scene between Bond and Emilio Largo.

** ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'': the "business meeting" at Osato's chemical company. However, Osata orders him killed the moment Bond leaves the room, and his goons try to gun him down in the carpark.

** ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'': auction scene involving a backgammon game between Bond and Khan.
** ''Film/AViewToAKill'': the horse sale at Zorin's estate.
** ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'': Bond meets Carver at his fancy network launch party. Played with since Bond [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow trolls Carver so blatantly]] about his EvilPlan he almost immediately summons some mooks to bring Bond to a back room to beat the shit out of him.
** The fencing match (where the sparring is more literal) in ''Film/DieAnotherDay''.

* In ''Film/ShowdownInLittleToyko'', Kenner and Maruta go to a Yakuza-owned club to speak to Yoshida, the man who killed Kenner's parents when Kenner was a child. Kenner knows he can't start anything because he and Maruta are greatly outnumbered, and Yoshida knows that unless they force his hand, he can't kill two cops because too many witnesses could place them in the club.

* A version shows up in ''Film/TheShadow'' when Shiwan Khan breaks into the Shadow's hideout to ask him to join him in his plans of domination. Not public, but nonviolent.
* In ''Film/OceansEleven'', Danny and Benedict first meet at a restaurant and politely trade banter.

->'''Vinny''': Then War Machine came out for a stare down with Kingdom because you see, the winners of the first great match and the winners of the second great match are now going to fight each other in the pay per view. How novel.\\

Mostly an espionage trope, but may crop up in crime fiction and other thrillers. The hero and an antagonist meet in public--a society function, a casino, a coffee shop or some other venue with lots of witnesses, (or other limitations, if that might not be enough--see the ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' example below). Other times even a few witnesses of the [[ThinkOfTheChildren wrong type]] will prevent combat from breaking out. The hero may know who the bad guy is, and the bad guy may know what the hero is doing, but under the circumstances [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim just shooting each other is out of the question]]. Instead they duel verbally, with an implied--or even explicitly stated--"[[WeWillMeetAgain the next time we meet things will be different]]" vibe.

A commonplace in ''Film/JamesBond'' films (and [[Literature/JamesBond novels]]--Creator/UmbertoEco calls this the "First Check" scene in Creator/IanFleming's stories).

* In ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'', the unexpected encounter between Toriko, Komatsu and Starjun at Bar Meria. At this point Starjun could probably have stomped them with ease, but states that he's just there looking for an ingredient, not a fight, and leaves peacefully.

** ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'': the "business meeting" at Osato's chemical company. However Osata orders him killed the moment Bond leaves the room, and his goons try to gun him down in the carpark.

** ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'': auction scene involving an backgammon game between Bond and Khan.

* ''Film/{{Highlander}}'': due to the rules about not fighting on sacred ground, the Highlander and the Kurgan have one of these in a NYC church.

* Subverted in ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'': Irene Adler arranges a meeting with Professor Moriarty in a crowded restaurant, implicitly so that they can have a civilized conversation without anybody trying to kill anybody. At the end of the conversation, Moriarty casually reveals that everybody else in the restaurant is in his pocket, and there's nothing to stop him killing her if he wants to.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones''. Done along with RuleOfThrees between Jaime Lannister and Ned Stark. The first two times, they subtly snark at each other; the third occasion it's a SwordFight.

* A variant of this appears in ''VideoGame/SplinterCell: Pandora Tomorrow''. The initial conversation between Sam Fisher and Normal Soth is non-violent because, while the protagonists know Soth has had a hand in some sort of terrorist action, all the information available to them at the time suggests he's a CIA deep-cover asset.

* In ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', the generals of the armies of Ankh-Morpork and Klatch meet for breakfast, snide remarks, and final demands on the battlefield with the intent of engaging in battle afterwards (though in that regard, things don't quite go according to plan).

* In ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'', Hamilton and Madison work together to write the Federalist Papers in ''Non-Stop''. One song later, in ''What'd I Miss'', Madison hates Hamilton for a reason never quite explored (probably due to political differences, but it's implied by LinManuelMiranda that there was a personal element to it in real life).

** ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'': the "business meeting" at Osato's chemical company.

%% Please see thread to discuss a new image.

-->--'''[[Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter The Bryan and Vinny Show]]''', reviewing the 11/14/2015 ''Wrestling/RingOfHonor on SBG''

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{Heat}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/non_violent_initial_confrontation.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[-"You know, we're sitting here like a couple of regular fellas. You do what you do, I do what I gotta do. And now that we've been face to face, if I'm there and I've gotta put you away? I won't like it. But I'll tell you, if it's between you and some poor bastard whose wife you're gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down."-]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[-"You know, we're sitting here like a couple of regular fellas. You do what you do, I do what I gotta do. And now that we've been face to face, if I'm there and I've gotta put you away? I won't like it. But I'll tell you, if it's between you and some poor bastard whose wife you're gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down."]]

[[caption-width-right:350: [-"You know, we're sitting here like a couple of regular fellas. You do what you do, I do what I gotta do. And now that we've been face to face, if I'm there and I've gotta put you away? I won't like it. But I'll tell you, if it's between you and some poor bastard whose wife you're gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down." ''- Film/{{Heat}}'' -] ]]

[[caption-width-right:350: [-"You know, we're sitting here like a couple of regular fellas. You do what you do, I do what I gotta do. And now that we've been face to face, if I'm there and I've gotta put you away? I won't like it. But I'll tell you, if it's between you and some poor bastard whose wife you're gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down."-] ]]

* ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'': the golf match between James Bond and Auric Goldfinger.
* ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'': the gambling scene between Bond and Emilio Largo.
** ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain'' has a not surprising variation (as it used the same basic plot) with Bond and its version of Largo.
* ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'': the "business meeting" at Osato's chemical company.
* Played with in ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', where we [[spoiler:don't realize it's happening]], because we [[spoiler:don't know the bad guy (Kristatos) is the bad guy]] yet.
* ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'': auction scene involving an backgammon game between Bond and Khan.
* ''Film/AViewToAKill'': the horse sale at Zorin's estate.
* The fencing match (where the sparring is more literal) in ''Film/DieAnotherDay''.

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', the generals of the armies of Ankh-Morpork and Klatch meet for breakfast, snide remarks, and final demands on the battlefield with the intent of engaging in battle afterwards (though in that regard, things don't quite go according to plan).
* In Robert B Parker's ''Small Vices'', Spenser has one of these with The Gray Man, a genuinely scary character who returns in later novels.
* Subverted in ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'': Artemis and Spiro meet in a crowded restaurant to make a deal, but it quickly goes south when it turns out ''everybody'' in the restaurant worked for Spiro, who steals the MagicComputer ({{Magitek}} literally) from Artemis.
* In ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'', John Rumford's introduction to Nazi officer and emissary Halsing sees them engaged in polite discussion over a shared breakfast. Unusual in that no witnesses or back-up men from either side are present: both simply trust the other to behave honorably, [[SacredHospitality and correctly so]], as it turns out.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Manga]]
* In ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'', the unexpected encounter between Toriko, Komatsu and Starjun at Bar Meria. At this point Starjun could probably have stomped them with ease, but states that he's just there looking for an ingredient, not a fight, and leaves peacefully.
* In a chapter of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', Negi and Fate agree to meet in a public coffee shop to attempt a diplomatic solution. This almost ends up failing, however, when they begin arguing over whether tea or coffee are better and the proper way to make tea and almost come to blows because of it. Then it ends up failing anyways because Fate's attempt to manipulate Negi is outed.
* In ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'', [[spoiler: Shinohara visits the ghoul cafe, Anteiku, to share a last cup with the cafe's manager, Yoshimura aka the Owl, before the CCG mission to kill the powerful Owl ghoul.]]
[[/folder]]

* In the ''{{Grimm}}'' episode "Cat and Mouse", characters Detective Burkhardt (the hero) and Edgar Waltz (henchman to the NebulousEvilOrganization, the Verrat) agree to meet in a public place. Unbeknownst to Burkhardt, he's already met Waltz when Waltz was pretending to be a witness to a nasty murder he in fact committed. See Burkhardt figure that out is part of the reason that Waltz wants to meet him in person instead of just issuing his demands over the phone.

'''Bryan''': Crazy."

* In ''{{Toriko}}'', the unexpected encounter between Toriko, Komatsu and Starjun at Bar Meria. At this point Starjun could probably have stomped them with ease, but states that he's just there looking for an ingredient, not a fight, and leaves peacefully.

->'''Vinny''':"Then War Machine came out for a stare down with Kingdom because you see, the winners of the first great match and the winners of the second great match are now going to fight each other in the pay per view. How novel."
->'''Bryan''':"Crazy."
-->-- ''[[Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter The Bryan and Vinny Show]]''(reviewing the 11/14/2015 ''[[Wrestling/RingOfHonor ROH on SBG]]'')

* ''ShiningForce'' has the hero encounter Elliot, an enemy general, in one of the towns. Elliot acknowledges that you are enemies, and says that your next meeting will be on the battlefield.

* Appears in the Rome hub of ''AlphaProtocol''. Michael arranges to meet a potential contact at a street cafe, but instead [[TheDragon Conrad Marburg]] makes his first appearance, coldly analysing Michael's past actions and telling him to back off.

-->''[[Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter The Bryan and Vinny Show]]''(reviewing the 11/14/2015 ''[[Wrestling/RingOfHonor ROH on SBG]]'')

[[quoteright:348:[[Film/{{Heat}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heat-large-tm_1505.jpg]]]]