Line #11 PlayingWith/PleaseSpareHimMyLiege


1	'''Basic Trope''': Someone (usually of royal blood) begs a sovereign to have the hero spared from execution or another unpleasant fate.
2	* '''Straight''': Princess Carol begs her royal father to spare Bob from execution.
3	* '''Exaggerated''': Princess Carol grabs her father's ermine cape, collapses to her knees, and wails for the king to not dock Bob a half day's pay for serving tea that wasn't hot enough.
4	* '''Downplayed''': Princess Carol requests that her royal father to spare Bob from a traffic ticket, but doesn't mind if he says no.
5	* '''Justified''':
6	** Princess Carol cares about Bob, and Bob certainly doesn't deserve to be executed. The logical course of action would be to appeal to her father, who has the authority to spare Bob.
7	** It is a CivilWar and Bob was on the losing side. Princess Carol believes magnanimity to be good politics.
8	** Bob is royalty to another kingdom, and Princess Carol persuades her father that killing him could ignite a war between their kingdom and Bob's, which they know is the stronger of the two in terms of military might.
9	* '''Inverted''':
10	** The princess begs for Bob's execution.
11	** The princess begs [[TheKingslayer Bob]] to spare her royal father from VigilanteExecution.
12	** The king begs Princess Carol not to kill Bob in the name of her country.
13	* '''Subverted''':
14	** Princess Carol promises Bob she'll try to get her father to spare his life, but when the time comes she demands that he be executed.
15	** Princess Carol begs her father to spare Bob knowing ''exactly'' that, because of her action, the father (who is a tyrant and a SlaveToPR) will execute Bob.
16	** Princess Carol's father orders Bob beheaded. Princess Carol begs her father not to behead Bob. But then she reveals what she wants done instead: dip Bob feet first into molten lead, because she's really a lot madder at Bob than her father is.
17	* '''Doubly Subverted''': Princess Carol promises Bob she'll try to get her father to spare his life, but when the time comes she demands that he be executed. Oddly, the king spares Bob's life anyway; as he's being led out of the throne room, Carol murmurs to him, "My father always has been susceptible to ReversePsychology..."
18	* '''Parodied''': Princess Carol does this every time her daddy says she can't have something.
19	* '''Zig Zagged''': Princess Carol promises Bob she'll try to get her father to spare his life, but when the time comes she demands that he be executed. Oddly, the king spares Bob's life anyway; as he's being led out of the throne room, Carol murmurs to him, "My father always has been susceptible to [[ReversePsychology Reverse Psy--]]" and then they fall into the SharkPool. Which is empty-- turns out the king knew about terrorists planning to assassinate both Carol and Bob if he didn't execute them. But the terrorists knew about the SharkPool gambit and work for the king anyway. Which is why they don't kill them.
20	* '''Averted''': Princess Carol merely gasps and despairs as Bob's sentence is announced.
21	* '''Enforced''': "How are we going to realistically get Bob out of this execution? Oh! We have to give Carol a PetTheDog moment anyway, so let's have her persuade her dad to pardon him!"
22	* '''Lampshaded''': "Wow, Princess Carol, if all you had to do was ask, why'd you wait 'till the last minute?"
23	* '''Invoked''':
24	** "I'll sentence Bob to death. That will BreakTheHaughty for my daughter; she will beg for him to be pardoned."
25	** "Just sparing Bob would not impress my clemency on the crowds; they'd just assume he wasn't that bad. I'll condemn him to death, and you plead for his life, Carol. That'll not only make me look good, it will convince people to come to you if they're too scared of me."
26	* '''Exploited''': When Carol is begging, the king realizes it's because she loves him, and even though Bob is the prince of a defeated state, taking the pardon and then letting them marry will politically resolve the war.
27	* '''Defied''':
28	** "I am not getting down on my knees like some shameless beggar! I'll just have someone break you out in secret."
29	** "My child, just make a formal plea. You don't need to make a spectacle of yourself."
30	* '''Discussed''': "Get down on your knees and have him spare Bob, princess! Kings are always suckers for noble beggars!"
31	* '''Conversed''': "The king is so uncompromising? What does it take: getting down on their knees and kissing his damned feet?!"
32	* '''Implied''': The king just lets Bob go and says that his daughter spoke well of his character, clearly not giving further details.
33	* '''Deconstructed''':
34	** Princess Carol's begging makes her father look down on her for acting as though she were a beggar allied with some commoner. He disowns her.
35	** The king, touched by Carol's begging, pardons Bob. Bob was every bit as dangerous as the king thought, and promptly raises an army, overthrows the king, and kills him. Bob lectures Carol about the folly of mercy to your enemies before killing her too.
36	** Bob is only a commoner, so there's nothing for the king to gain by sparing him. This leads to him giving his daughter Carol an ultimatum where he'll spare Bob only if she'll accept an ArrangedMarriage with RoyalBrat David in order to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom.
37	** The King knows how much Princess Carol cares about Bob, and he himself pities Bob, but he [[TheChainsOfCommanding feels compelled by duty]] to sentence Bob to death because Bob is guilty of a capitol offense.
38	** Princess Carol tries to convince her father to spare Bob, who previously helped TheDarkLord, but now [[HeelFaceTurn wants to atone for his actions]]. The problem with this is that Bob has committed several atrocities against their kingdom. Even if Bob wants to atone for his crimes, [[ReformedButRejected it's not enough to make people forgive him]]. The king comes across as TheGoodKing for executing Bob, while the people see Carol as a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter for wanting to save Bob's life.
39	* '''Reconstructed''': The whole thing is a SecretTestOfCharacter for Princess Carol. Her impassioned pleas convince the king that she truly cares about the wellbeing of people other than herself, and as a result the king makes her his heir and allows her to marry Bob.
40	* '''Played For Laughs''': While grasping her father's [[RequisiteRoyalRegalia ermine robes]], Carol then gets jealous that her [[PimpedOutCape capes]] aren't [[PrettyInMink lined with ermine]], and then beg for that as well as for Bob's life.
41	* '''Played For Drama''': Carol's pleading reminds the king of when he was a young boy and the kingdom's old enemy killed his mother despite his own begging. This makes him realize what a bitter man he's become, and tries not to break into tears himself as he apologizes for the way he's been acting, and will of course spare Bob.
42	----
43	I swear, father, they will look at the tropes if you let them go, I'm not just saying that, he is very loyal to people who do him a service, but PleaseSpareHimMyLiege
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45	%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
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Context PlayingWith / PleaseSpareHimMyLiege