History Main / PleaseSpareHimMyLiege

** The ''Literature/BookOfEsther'' ends with Esther pleading on behalf of all Jews. It also features a subversion; after [[BatmanGambit being set up]] by Esther to admit to Xerxes his plan to kill the Jews, [[SmugSnake Haman]] throws himself at Esther's mercy. Cue Xerxes suddenly entering and seeing Haman [[NotWhatItLooksLike apparently attempting to rape his wife]]. Naturally, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard this does not end well for Haman...]]

** In ''Theatre/MeasureForMeasure,'' aspiring nun Isabella goes to Angelo - the temporary ruler of Vienna - to beg for her brother Claudio to be spared a death sentence for violating an old blue law decreeing death for any man who impregnates a woman out of wedlock. Angelo's offer to spare Claudio in exchange for Isabella's virginity fuels the main plot of the play.

* ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium:

* Although she's not of royal blood, Sandy Cheeks in ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOnTheRun'' begs King Poseidon not to hurt [=SpongeBob=] after speaking in his defence. She even sounds like she’s on the verge of tears.

** Sansa pleads with Joffrey to exercise mercy in his treatment of Ned. Obviously she intends for Joffrey to commute Ned's death sentence to banishment to the Wall, but Joffrey has Ned beheaded. Joffrey says later that before Sansa pleaded for Ned's life, he was going to have Ned hung, drawn, and quartered before he beheaded him.

* According to John Smith, Pocahontas famously begged her father, the chief of the Powhatan, to spare his life in 1607 Virginia. Depending on who you ask, the whole thing might have been a sort of initiation ritual, or Smith might have made the whole thing up in order to give Pocahontas a hero's welcome on her trip to England.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has an example during [[spoiler:the Dominion's occupation of the station.]] Dukat's (naive) daughter comes to him looking for a pardon for a friend caught trying to commit sabotage on a military base. Despite a full pardon for an enemy saboteur during a war being a relatively ''outlandish'' request (which she can't seem to grasp), Dukat's reaction (criminals are enemies of the state, they never deserve mercy) finally convinces her he really is one of the bad guys. Kira has similar results with Weyoun when she tries to invoke Bajoran territorial authority in the matter.

->''Spare him, my lord Raiden! American life has...enfeebled his mind! Too much television!''

* Played with in ''WebAnimation/{{Shrapnel}}'' when the Commandah worriedly asks Reznya to forgive one of his bruddahs for spitting on and insulting her while refusing to accept her as his queen, because she ''also'' refuses to accept the Commandah’s declaration that she is the Ugandan Knuckles new queen. Whatever the case, [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe she ignores the Commandah’s plea.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}''. In "Oil and Water", Mel has a PastExperienceNightmare of herself as a child with her warrior mother Ambessa in the devastated throne room of a kingdom they've just conquered. Ambessa has her guards bring the SoleSurvivor of the defeated royal family, a girl Mel's age, and asks what she should do with her. Mel says her life should be spared to show the populace that they can be merciful. Ambessa is having none of it and [[RulingFamilyMassacre cuts the girl's head off so she can't be a figurehead for future rebellions]]. "A wolf has no mercy."

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[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Feudal relationships are one of the background themes, so this situation appears. [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20030115 Agatha begs the Baron to spare Dr. Beetle]]. [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090429 Zola begs Agatha to spare Gil]] (her only really nice moment). [[SubvertedTrope Not that either attempt was really necessary]]; the Baron considered Beetle too useful to execute even if he ''had'' committed treason (and was rather annoyed when Gil ended up semi-accidentally killing Beetle in self-defense) and Gil is Agatha's LoveInterest.
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* In the last days of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Eva Braun tried to plead with UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler to spare her brother-in-law Hermann Fegelein from being executed.

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Soon after arriving at Myth/TheScholomance, the arrogant rookie Julia Medina challenges the top-ranked student Morgan Wolf to a WizardDuel to see who will run the school. Morgan proceeds to demonstrate ''why'' she's the top-ranked student and utterly thrashes Julia before beginning to slowly kill her. Julia's sister Alejandra and another student both invoke this trope and plead for Julia's life. Unfortunately, Morgan refuses to listen and kills Julia without a second thought.

* Queen Philippa, wife of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet Edward III]], successfully interceded with her husband for the lives of six Frenchmen. During the UsefulNotes/HundredYearsWar, these six -- known as "the Burghers of Calais" -- agreed to let Edward execute them in exchange for him lifting the siege of Calais. Philippa, however, pleaded with Edward to spare the burghers if the town surrendered. He agreed, and all of the residents of Calais were allowed to leave unharmed. The plight of the six {{Sacrificial Lion}}s was commemorated in a statue by Creator/AugusteRodin. You can read more about it [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burghers_of_Calais here]].

* Mittermeyer pleads for mercy on Reuental's behalf at least twice in ''Literature/LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes.''

* In ''Film/TheTenCommandments1956'', Lilia begs Moses for mercy for Joshua after he struck an Egyptian overseer while trying to save Moses' mother (though he didn't know it yet) from being killed.

* On ''Series/{{The 100}}'', Clarke begs Lexa, the Commander of the Grounders, to spare Finn's life. [[spoiler:Lexa refuses.]]
* On ''Series/LoisAndClark'', Lois and Clark go back to medieval times to break a curse that a prior version of Tempus had put on them. Lois becomes Lady Loisette and Clark is "The Fox," a Zorro-like character. When Tempus threatens to kill The Fox, Lady Loisette pledges, on her royal honor, that if Tempus spares him, she will marry Tempus and be a "faithful" wife (since she is royalty, this means never, ever opposing him nor seeing The Fox again.)

* Literature/TheBible:
** The Literature/BookOfEsther ends with Esther pleading on behalf of all Jews.
** It also features an interesting subversion; after [[BatmanGambit being set up]] by Esther to admit to Xerxes his plan to kill the Jews, [[SmugSnake Haman]] throws himself at Esther's mercy. Cue Xerxes suddenly entering and seeing Haman [[NotWhatItLooksLike apparently attempting to rape his wife]]. Naturally, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard this does not end well for Haman...]]
** A [[ValuesDissonance depressing]] percentage of the books of Numbers and Leviticus consists of the Israelites (God's "[[ButtMonkey chosen people]]," by the way) doing something to piss Him off, God threatening to wipe them all out, Moses pleading with Him, and then God agreeing to destroy only a few thousand of them instead. Honestly, after a few times, [[TooDumbToLive you'd think they'd learn]] that God is not someone to piss off.
** Although this same God agreed to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if 50 righteous people were found living in it. Abraham (who was pleading for the life of the city) was able to negotiate God down to 10 righteous people. Unfortunately, the only halfway decent people living in the city were Lot and his family (and [[ValuesDissonance Lot offered his virgin daughters as rape-toys to his violent neighbors]] in order to save the lives of a [[SacredHospitality couple of houseguests]]). Sodom and Gomorrah didn't stand a chance.

* Sheeda does this for Oguma in the ''Anime/FireEmblem'' OVA (this is not in the games because Oguma's backstory in the games doesn't work with this).

* Rowena/Margaret did this to save Erika from the wrath of Richter after he found out his sister was in love with Kazuya, the pilot of ''Anime/{{Daimos}}''.

* ''WebVideo/RoseOfVersaillesAbridged'' spoofs the pictured scene. Marie-Antoinette tries it as a JediMindTrick; the King is only partly affected, but he sighs and lets André go anyway.

* The first book of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has this toward the end, with [[spoiler:Sansa (unsuccessfully) begging Joffrey to spare her father. He insists later that beheading ''was'' mercy compared to his original plan]]. She learns from her mistakes by the second book, and when Joffrey decides in a fit of rage to execute Ser Dontos for showing up drunk at a tournament, Sansa convinces Joffrey to spare him by [[BriarPatching suggesting that it would be crueler]] to turn him into a court jester.

* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'': after Aredhel, the sister of Turgon, King of Gondolin, is wounded by her husband Eöl; she manages to convince Turgon to spare him. Since she dies in the night (the weapon was poisoned), Turgon is not so merciful in the end...
** When King Thingol finds out about his daughter Lúthien's tryst with the human Beren, Lúthien begs him not to kill him.

* In ''Anime/TheRoseOfVersailles'', when Louis XV wants to execute André for UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette's accident. She recovers, and successfully persuades the king that André did nothing wrong.

* ''Film/TheOtherBoleynGirl'': Mary pleads with King Henry VIII to spare her sister Anne because, as her sister, Anne is one half of Mary. He doesn't want to hurt her, but [[YouShouldKnowThisAlready you know how it ends]].

* Queen Philippa, wife of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet Edward III]], successfully interceded with her husband for the lives of six Frenchmen. During the UsefulNotes/HundredYearsWar, these six -- known as "the burghers of Calais" -- agreed to let Edward execute them in exchange for him lifting the siege of Calais. Philippa, however, pleaded with Edward to spare the burghers if the town surrendered. He agreed, and all of the residents of Calais were allowed to leave unharmed. The plight of the six {{Sacrificial Lion}}s was commemorated in a statue by Creator/AugusteRodin. You can read more about it [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burghers_of_Calais here]].

* In ''Film/TheManInTheIronMask'', D'artagnan pleads with King Louis to spare the life of [[spoiler:his twin brother, Philippe]], doing so in the name of his long years of devoted service, during which he never Louis asked for ''anything''. [[spoiler:It doesn't work, but Philippe escapes death via an inspired bit of BriarPatching, and is instead thrown in jail, where he is swiftly rescued by Aramais, Athos, Porthos, as well as D'artagnan, who has undergone a FaceHeelTurn]].

* Queen Philippa, wife of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet Edward III]], successfully interceded with her husband for the lives of six Frenchmen. During the UsefulNotes/HundredYearsWar, these six -- known as 'the burghers of Calais' - agreed to let Edward execute them in exchange for him lifting the siege of Calais. Philippa, however, pleaded with Edward to spare the burghers if the town surrendered. He agreed, and all of the residents of Calais were allowed to leave unharmed. The plight of the six {{Sacrificial Lion}}s was commemorated in a statue by Creator/AugusteRodin. You can read more about it [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burghers_of_Calais here]].

* Queen Philippa, wife of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet Edward III]], successfully interceded with her husband for the lives of six French men. During the UsefulNotes/HundredYearsWar, these six men - known as 'the burghers of Calais' - agreed to let Edward execute them in exchange for his no longer besieging Calais. Philippa, however, pleaded with Edward to spare the burghers if the town surrendered. He agreed, and all of the residents of Calais were allowed to leave unharmed. The plight of the six {{Sacrificial Lion}}s was commemorated in a statue by Auguste Rodin. You can read more about it [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burghers_of_Calais here]].
* Katherine of Aragon, UsefulNotes/HenryVIII's first wife, pleaded for the lives of the perpetrators of the Evil May Day massacre, when she saw how devastated their families were by the death sentence. In spite of the fact that the victims were mostly Spanish aliens, and she was a Spanish princess, she succeeded.
** A couple decades later, the same king received a similar plea from his third queen, Jane Seymour, for the rebels in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Unfortunately, Henry had changed considerably since the "Evil May Day" incident, and this time, the plea was not as well received...

** King Joffrey is annoyed when [[FailureKnight Ser Dontos Holland]] turns up drunk for his birthday tourney, and orders him drowned in a cast of wine. Aware of [[OffWithHisHead what happened last time]] she begged Joffrey for mercy, Sansa Stark convinces him it will be more humiliating to make Dontos his fool.

* Mittermeyer pleads for mercy on Reuental's behalf at least twice in ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes.''

* Maid Marian, in the Disney animated version of ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood,'' pleads with Prince John for Robin's life when he is captured after the archery contest.

* ''Fanfic/TheVow'': After [[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2 Lord Shen's]] crime of [[spoiler:panda genocide]] is exposed (in the middle of his wedding, no less), Gongmen City's entire council condemns him to be executed and Shen's devastated parents seem to have no choice but to go along with it. Lady Lianne, Shen's beloved, arrives to speak on Shen's behalf, kneels in her wedding dress and begs in a teary way for Shen to be exiled instead, hoping that he'd repent and be able to return. Unfortunately, Shen is unaware of what Lianne did for him and believes her to have simply forgotten him during his following thirty years in exile, resulting in him imprisoning her when he retakes Gongmen as per canon and desiring vengeance on her as well. When he's finally told of what Lianne did to save him, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he feels remorseful]] for his treatment of her and fully rekindles his love for her [[spoiler:([[SparedByTheAdaptation which saves him in the end]])]].

* In ''Film/TheTenCommandments'', Lila begs Moses for mercy for Joshua after he struck an Egyptian overseer while trying to save Moses' mother (though he didn't know it yet) from being killed.

** Her mother, Catelyn, did this many years before on behalf of Petyr Baelish, after he fought a duel and got curb-stomped by her betrothed, Brandon Stark, for her hand in marriage. [[spoiler:Years later, this bit the entire kingdom in the ass as Petyr saw Catelyn's pleading for his life as demeaning and humiliating, and he sought revenge against the Starks and to become the most powerful lord in Westeros through trickery and manipulation to prove he's not a "boy" as Cate called him]].

* ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'' (second book of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''): Variant. When Kaladin is thrown in prison for [[spoiler:accusing a highlord of murdering his own men]], King Elhokar wants him killed, or at the very least exiled. These are the standard penalties for such things, but Dalinar, the king's uncle (and also Kaladin's commanding officer) tells Elhokar that if he insists on doing so, Elhokar will make an enemy of Dalinar. Dalinar has spent the last six years fighting to keep the kingdom together and give Elhokar the power to be a worthy king--but he's willing to throw that all away for Kaladin. Elhokar ends up imprisoning Kaladin for a month. It later turns out that [[spoiler:Elhokar knew what he was doing was wrong all along. He was just jealous of Kaladin's heroism, so he derailed his own plan in order to punish Kaladin for being better than him. Elhokar apologizes and even begs Kaladin for "the secret of leadership," though unfortunately Kaladin is too depressed at the time to help]].

* [[Literature/TheBible The Book of Esther]] ends with Esther pleading on behalf of all Jews.

** A [[ValuesDissonance depressing]] percentage of the books of Numbers and Leviticus consists of the Israelites (God's "[[ButtMonkey chosen people]]," by the way) doing something to piss Him off, God threatening to wipe them all out, Moses pleading with Him, and then God agreeing to destroy only a few thousand of them instead.
*** Honestly, after a few times, [[TooDumbToLive you'd think they'd learn]] that God is not someone to piss off.
** Although this same God agreed to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if 50 righteous people were found living in it. Abraham (who was pleading for the life of the city) was able to negotiate God down to 10 righteous people. Unfortunately, the only halfway decent people living in the city were Lot and his family (and even [[ValuesDissonance Lot offered his virgin daughters as rape-toys to his violent neighbors]] in order to save the lives of a [[SacredHospitality couple of houseguests]]). Needless to say, Sodom and Gomorrah didn't stand a chance.

* According to John Smith, Pocahontas famously begged her father, the chief of the Powhatan, to spare his life in 1607 Virginia. Of course, depending on who you ask, the whole thing might have been a sort of initiation ritual, or Smith might have made the whole thing up in order to give Pocahontas a hero's welcome on her trip to England.